The Impala, The Brothers, and The Witch
by RoseWood91
Summary: The war was done and Hermione had enough, she had built herself a quiet life in East Hollow when two boys in an Impala show up destroying any semblance of a normal life. Seems getting a quiet life just isn't in the cards for Hermione, now she's on another adventure, this time with the two brothers instead of Harry and Ron.
1. Chapter 1

Alright, Here it is my first story and a crossover between Supernatural and Harry Potter. I hope you enjoy!

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Hermione made her way home after a long work day at the local library in her small little town. She enjoyed living her quiet and simple life away from all the madness that had surrounded her and the boys as soon as she had entered the magical world, and throughout their years at Hogwarts.

Once the war had finished she had had enough, she needed to leave, needed some time to recover and to heal. Hermione had gone on an extended vacation at first, traveling much of the world before making her way through the US. She had spent time on each coast exploring the history of the oldest states before ending up here, in Virginia.

The town of East Hollow, Virginia had instantly felt like home to her. Hermione had been passing through initially and then just kept extending her stay.

It wasn't as though she had a schedule to keep or anything so she figured why not stay just a little longer. One day, after a few months she had looked around and realised she wasn't just visiting anymore, she had all but officially moved here.

Hermione had spent so much time learning the local history and legends surrounding the town and area that she had caught the attention of the local librarian. East Hollow may have been a small town but its long colorful history proved to be quite the draw for tourists, so Hermione had been offered a job as the local history expert at the town library.

She had found the town quite easy to adjust to, the people were friendly and the town was fairly small, a few thousand people. Hermione and Crookshanks had found a lovely old Colonial style home with a library, which had been her treat to herself for finally putting her own needs and wants first.

She had realised once she left England just how much she always did for everyone else and how little she did for herself. She had always been the reliable and sensible one of their group and so her escape from the magical world and constant travel had been a bit of a shock to many who knew her.

Namely Ron.

He hadn't handled it overly well when she had announced she would be leaving for a while.

"What do you mean you're leaving?! You can't just bugger off to another bloody country!" he had exploded.

"And just why not?" she had asked "The war is over, the clean-up is well underway and it's not like I'm required to stay in England permanently."

"Yes you are! You were supposed to stay here and be with me. We would have gotten married and had kids and you would've stayed and taken care of them!" he looked almost annoyed that she hadn't known this fact.

"Ron… we aren't even dating… you're like my brother I just don't imagine that ever happening with us. I'm so sorry." She felt almost guilty for not wanting this and for crushing his imaginary little world.

Harry had stayed quiet during all this looking distinctly uncomfortable.

"Ron…" he began "Hermione needs time away from everything here and I think we should respect that. We've all been through a lot." Harry attempted to mediate what had the potential to be another of Hermione and Ron's legendary blowouts.

Ron was slowly turning purple and looked ready to explode at any second.

"Ron I'm leaving tomorrow, and to be honest I'm not sure when I'll be back. I can't stay around all the reminders of the people we've lost and the pain we all went through. I still have dreams of my time in Malfoy Manor… you know that." She had tried to reason.

"BLOODY HELL MIONE. GET OVER IT!" Ron finally exploded. "That was months ago, when are you going to stop using it as an excuse?!"

Harry looked almost as shocked as she felt. She couldn't believe it, she knew Ron was thick but honestly, to minimize the torture she had gone through to protect them was just too much.

Hermione didn't even bother to respond and simply turned to give Harry a hug and a promise to owl him whenever she had the chance. Hermione then turned and without so much as a glance to Ron, apparated to her flat, packed her necessities and she was gone within minutes.

She had had no real plan when she had taken off but she knew she couldn't stay there any longer. She had a sizeable bank account from being considered a 'war hero' and her parents had been fairly well off, so she really wasn't too worried.

She spent nearly a year simply traveling to wherever she felt at the time before crossing the Atlantic and finding herself in the United States.

A few months after that she found herself in Virginia and in the small town of East Hollow, with her own home and a job and friends.

Hermione had been putting off telling her friends back home that she now had no plans to return but she knew it couldn't be avoided forever. Tonight she would owl Harry and she knew he would let everyone know of her choice to stay.

Perhaps it was cowardly to have him do it for her but at this point she just wasn't interested in receiving another guilt trip about her decision to leave.

Once Hermione arrived at home she sat at her desk and pulled her parchment and quill out in an attempt to explain her decision to those back home.

 _Harry,_

 _I know it's been some time since I've written and for that I'm truly sorry. I've found myself in a lovely little town in Virginia called East Hollow. I don't know how to say this so I'll just come out with it…._

 _I'm not coming back. I can't return to England. I know it's not what anyone wants to hear but I'm happy here. I've got a job at the local library as an expert on local lore and history as well as friends, I've even bought a home!_

 _It's a lovely old colonial style home, likely way too big for just me and crookshanks but I love it. I even have my own library and everything! I think it may rival the local library I'm working in for size. I miss you all dearly however I feel like this is where I belong right now._

 _I'm selfishly hoping you'll agree to pass this along to everyone. I just don't have it in me to try and explain myself to everyone anymore. I'm finally happy. My boss Rachel is such a free spirit and never fails to make me laugh and our assistant Adam is a fabulously gay man that's so outrageous I can't help but smile while he's around. There's no reminders of the death and destruction or the constant comments from others about being muggleborn, I may be returning to the muggle world however I will never fully give up my magic, so don't worry too much. I still keep my wards up and protection around my home and it's all very safe._

 _Send my love to Ginny, I hope you know that you're both welcome to visit at any time. Just let me know and I'll connect the floo for you._

 _Love always,_

 _Mione_


	2. Chapter 2

Hermione awoke the next morning to a pile of letters waiting for her from England. While Hermione had expected them to not fully understand her decision to return to the muggle world she definitely had not expected the type of response she had received from some of the Weasley's.

Ron had essentially told her that she was stupid to give up the wizarding world and he was no longer interested in 'waiting around for her to come back and start their family', again in his own delusional world.

Harry, even though he didn't fully understand her decision as he hadn't had the greatest experience with muggles, was supportive and had asked when he and Ginny could come visit her in her new home.

Molly didn't even bother to acknowledge Hermione as she was no longer a possible future Weasley, and the majority of the Weasley family had followed suit. The exception being the Twins and Ginny who had been very supportive after seeing Hermione's struggle to maintain her happiness and sanity after the war.

One thing was certain, all this had made her decision to stay in East Hollow permanently so much easier, and after all, what was there to go back to?

The first thing Hermione had noticed about East Hollow when she had arrived here was the history, forever the bookworm with a thirst for knowledge she loved learning the past of the town. It was a muggle town, if a slightly quirky one, which made Hermione like it all the more, it seemed almost like a melding of her worlds.

The locals had a few shops dedicated to things like Tarot cards, Crystals, and even what they called an Apothecary. Hermione had spent a few days looking through the shops and had noted that although most of it was rubbish the apothecary had some legitimate remedies that the locals swore by. Even by East Hollow standards though, Hermione was considered a bit odd.

After all, it wasn't every day that a 24 year old girl could afford to move halfway across the world and buy a house on her own, as well as have owls arriving and leaving from her home on a regular basis. She had been the source of a fair amount of gossip when she had arrived, as is bound to happen in any small town, however it had died down after a few days.

Hermione stayed in bed for a while hoping to ignore the fact that some of the people she had considered her family for so long had just cast her aside so casually.

She looked down at her arm that Bellatrix Lestrange had happily carved into, the word Mudblood which would never fully heal, staring back at her as a constant reminder of the world she had left behind and sacrificed so much for. She wasn't ashamed of her scar, she didn't try to hide it even though it was hard to explain, and she wore it as her badge of honor. Her proof that she had survived and that she was not less than anyone else.

She had sent her parents all the way to Australia during the war, but it hadn't been enough to protect them and they were found and killed by death eaters not long after. Hermione had spent so many years dedicating herself to the wizarding world, defending it against Voldemort and his followers and what did she get back? A scar and a quick pat on the back and then she was essentially forgotten.

She supposed it was partially her fault for leaving the wizarding world in favor of a calmer and more relaxing life, but she still felt underappreciated. She had given up everything she had ever known, been ridiculed for years as a muggleborn, lost her parents, and was permanently scarred, all for people who now could really care less about the brains of what had once been The Golden Trio.

With a sigh she finally heaved herself out of bed, shaking away the negative and self-absorbed thoughts, in order to make herself presentable for work. Being October they were still in prime tourism season and she knew she would be spending lots of time answering questions regarding the town's long history.

She looked at herself in the mirror after getting ready and had to admit that she did look better for being away from England. The permanently worried and stressed look that she used to have was gone, she was back to a healthy weight and had mostly recovered from the ordeal with Bellatrix.

Hermione had discovered a lot about herself in her travels and was now fully confident in herself, no longer doubting her worth for being muggleborn. Her time traveling Africa had given her spiritual calm, Europe had given her as much history and art as she could handle, Asia had helped her mind to heal and now in the U.S. she was ready to start her life over.

Her hair had calmed into a mostly manageable long mane of curls and she was no longer hidden under her bulky robes all the time. If there was one thing she had missed in her time in the wizarding world it was a nice pair of jeans.

Looking at the clock she swore, she was running late already, guess I'm skipping the coffee this morning she thought with a sigh as she grabbed her bag and leather jacket and headed for the door. As soon as she was outside she noticed an odd feeling surrounding the town, it felt almost tense and on edge. She walked the blocks to the library and noticed that even at this early hour there was already a few cars in the lot.

* * *

Inside, the librarian Rachel was already fielding questions from some tourists. Their library often served as an information centre for tourists as there really was no other place in town to go.

Hermione made her way to the main desk and greeted Rachel, once the questions ended, and their assistant Adam who had been slowly flipping through his magazine.

"Hey guys, why's it so busy in here already? Its only 8." She asked setting her things down and settling in.

Adam who had begun crankily stacking the returns cart gave her an incredulous look. "You mean you didn't hear?" he asked conspiratorially.

She shook her head.

"So you know Joanna Henning, right? Her body was found last night in the forest trails out by the old Manor."

"No way. Joanna was killed?" Hermione asked in shock.

Holy crap. Hermione was floored, Joanna had been a waitress at the local bar and had always been well liked by everyone, and she was always friendly to Hermione whenever she had been drug in to the bar for drinks with her friends after work.

She almost couldn't believe there was someone who could do anything to hurt Joanna. Everyone has their secrets she reminded herself, including you.

"Yep. Now we have all these people asking all kinds of weird questions about the manor and the history there. Everyone seems to think there's something weird going on. John apparently told Siobhan that there was these weird symbols all over the area and they can't seem figure out exactly what happened to Joanna." Said her friend and boss Rachel shrugging.

John was the local sheriff and Siobhan the local gossip from the diner on Main Street.

"However, there were two guys that came in earlier asking about the manor who were absolutely gorgeous. Even you would've appreciated the view!" Rachel joked to Hermione.

It was a source of entertainment for her friends that she had shown zero interest in any of the men in the town since her arrival. Hermione blamed it on her terrible dating history.

After all, her time with Viktor had been limited to the Yule Ball and some letters, she had stopped in to visit him after leaving England but she just knew they were a terrible match. Then there was Ron, he had been a best friend for years and for a very short time they tried to date before Hermione called it off.

Apparently Ron had still held some hope though judging from his rant the day she had left the wizarding world. There had been the occasional fling during her traveling time between England and here but not one of them had turned out to be anything special.

"Anyways, you're probably gonna be extra busy today now that the story is spreading, more and more of the weirdos that love this kind of freaky stuff are coming in asking for information and legends." Rachel commented, breaking into Hermione's trip down her romantic past, pointing to the local history books that were all strewn all over the library's tables.

"Great." She groaned and thumped her head on the desk. The one day she hadn't had any coffee in the morning would probably be the busiest of the season.

By the end of the day Hermione had fielded about a million questions regarding the old Beaufort Manor that Joanna had died near. It was almost closing time and only Hermione and Adam were left cleaning up and re-shelving everything that the people had dug through once hearing about the murder.

Apparently it had been years since there had been any kind of happening like this in the small town and everyone was talking about it, meaning everyone wanted to consider themselves an expert. Hermione had tried to ignore it but the later and less busy it had become the more her mind had begun to drift to the war and all the people she had known who had been killed in the war and over the years fighting Voldemort. She hadn't been near any death since then and it was taking its toll.

Adam had just finished shelving the last of the books and was grumping about 'messy nosy people who can't clean up behind themselves' while Hermione was counting the seconds until she could get out of there and go home to try to relax and not sink any further into her past.

Hermione had just begun gathering her things when two men walked in and headed for her desk. Crap, she really just wanted to leave. The blond one subtly shoving the taller one, and she was pretty sure she heard a muttered "Bitch" "Jerk" from the two men.

They were both very handsome and she couldn't help but wonder if they were the ones Rachel had mentioned to her earlier. Adam was behind them very clearly ogling them both while giving Hermione a thumbs up and a wink. He was always pointing out the straight men he found attractive to Hermione, stating that since they'd never go for him Hermione may as well give it a shot.

The extremely tall dark haired one introduced himself as Sam and the other slightly shorter blond one he introduced as his partner Dean.

Cops? She thought to herself, definitely not local ones.

Ah, FBI, what on earth would FBI want with one isolated murder in small town Virginia? She wondered. Hermione couldn't help but be slightly disappointed that Dean was hanging back, he really was something nice to look at. Adam seemed to agree with her if the grin on his face was anything to go by.

"Are you Hermione?" Sam asked.

"Yes, that's me. Can I help you guys?"

"We heard you were the one to talk to regarding any local legends or history. We were hoping you could help us."

"Is this about the Beaufort Manor?" she asked knowing full well the answer would be yes.

"Yeah, we were hoping to learn about some of the history behind the place, and maybe look through whatever books you have on it as well. We've looked online but there's really not much there."

Adam who had been listening in thumped his head on the desk upon hearing this and groaned, having just finished re-shelving the books they were asking about.

"Well we were just closing up, but if you want we can gather the books for you and meet up when the library re-opens tomorrow morning to go over the history. Most of it isn't online yet, East Hollow is a bit behind the times." Hermione replied. She was really in no mood to go through the mounds of history surrounding the place once again that night.

"Great." The blond one replied finally speaking up. "Sammy lets go get some pie and a beer. We can do all the boring research junk tomorrow." He said before turning and leaving the library.

"Thanks Hermione, see you tomorrow!" Sam said as he jogged to get to the car that Dean had already started to leave with.

"Hurry up Sasquatch!" she heard the blond yell to Sam as she locked the doors.


	3. Chapter 3

Alright Guys, let me know what you think! reviews are always welcome, anything you'd like to see let me know!

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Sam and Dean had gone and gotten their room in their trademark crappy motel as soon as they had arrived in East Hollow early that morning. They had tried to research some more into the case online but there was nothing, so instead they set out to talk to the locals and hit the crime scene to get more info.

Working all day and sorting through the various versions of the story they had heard from the locals was exhausting. They called it a day and went to eat at the diner in town, Dean again claiming he needed pie.

Sam seemed excited to talk to this Hermione the librarian chick tomorrow. What kind of name was Hermione anyways? Dean wondered. He had to admit she was nice to look at so at least he had that to look forward to, even if it would be a boring as hell research day.

Research and books were definitely more Sam's thing than Dean's but he knew it had to be done, after all they really didn't have much else to go on at the moment.

Sam sat eating his salad, Dean with his apple pie, going over what little they had learned. It seemed every time they had asked anyone anything they all said the same damn thing "Talk to Hermione at the library, she's like a walking talking local history book. She'll know." So instead of wasting any more of their time they had gone to the crime scene once the blonde girl at the library had said that Hermione wouldn't be in for a few more hours.

Using their fake badges and claiming to be from the FBI they had gained access to the scene and talked to the local Sheriff.

"Don't know what the FBI wants with this but you're welcome to poke around." They had been told as he walked away.

The victim was Joanna Henning, a thirty year old bar waitress, who seemed to be well like by everyone. Her body had been found in the forest out by an old manor that had some sort of history that nobody really seemed eager to rehash with them.

She was just barely on the property line, lying on her back with legs crossed and arms straight out to her sides. Various symbols had been found all over the area, some they recognized some they hadn't, one symbol in particular had been drawn onto the bodies arm quite clearly and they had no idea about its meaning or origin.

This was pissing Sam off in particular, not being used to not finding what they needed through his research. The boys were currently waiting to hear back from the autopsy that was supposed to happen later tomorrow. They had a lot of ideas about what could have done this to the victim, however they couldn't figure out the connection to the symbols.

"This is weird man, I just don't understand the symbols. Some are Celtic, this one here is a Native American symbol, this one over here I can't find anywhere… It's like there's absolutely no pattern at all." Sam said getting frustrated pointing out symbols in the pictures.

"Ask the hot librarian tomorrow, maybe she'll know something." Dean said shrugging and shoveling in more pie. "She is supposed to be the expert around here isn't she?"

"Yeah I guess."

"So let's get this straight." Dean said finishing up the cherry pie he'd ordered. "We've got a dead waitress, no obvious signs as to who or what killed her, and some random jumble of symbols that mean jack shit?"

"Pretty much."

"Awesome …. Think this could this be like that case where those kids painted random symbols all over the hell house and brought Mordechi to life?" Dean asked thinking back to a case they had worked not too long ago.

"Might be. Some jackass out there with a bunch of books that have pretty symbols… or it might not be our kind of thing at all." Sam sighed.

"Yeah. Guess we'll know after the autopsy tomorrow."

The boys were about to pack up and leave when they noticed the library crew come into the diner and take a seat. The waitress, Siobhan, got right to work filling them in on the whole murder and Sam and Dean couldn't help but listen in.

"Nobody knows what she was doing out there. Joanna wasn't exactly the outdoorsy, forest type, ya know? Anyways, John figures it's just some freak out there drawing weird crap all over, even one on her arm. Joanna was probably just in the wrong place at the wrong time." She shrugged and continued onto the rest of the gossip about the other locals.

The boys couldn't help but notice the way Hermione had gotten lost in her thoughts as soon as the random symbol on the arm was mentioned.

"So Adam tells me the two hotties came back looking for you tonight Mione. What'd I tell ya? Even you can't deny they're good to look at." Rachel laughed.

Hermione just laughed and shook her head at her friend avoiding the question. "They're supposed to be coming in tomorrow to learn more about Beaufort. That place gives me the creeps, has ever since I moved here."

"That place gives everyone the creeps." Piped up Adam "However if it means more good looking guys like them come around I don't even care, this town has a serious lack of eye candy."

"It does not! You just went through all the eligible ones in this town." Rachel joked.

"Oh whatever." He sulked

"She's not wrong you know." Hermione said laughing at the put-out look on his face.

Sam paid for his food and Dean's pie obsession, and pushed Dean out the doors after watching Dean's ego inflate with each passing comment the other table made. They headed back to their room for the night to prepare for the long day tomorrow.

Dean couldn't help but get more and more curious about that Hermione girl. She was obviously from England if the accent was to be trusted, hadn't lived here long, and seemed to be disturbed by the mention of the symbols but not necessarily the dead woman.

Dean was intrigued and had to admit he was dreading the library day a little less than he usually would. Plus, she didn't exactly look like your typical librarian, she was hot. He couldn't remember the last time the town librarian had been so young and didn't wear the typical getup of shapeless skirts and sweaters.

* * *

The alarm went off for Hermione at 7 the next morning. She rolled over and forced herself to prepare for another day answering questions on a weird old house.

She thought back to the piece of information about the weird symbols and couldn't help but draw parallels to the death eaters. Symbol on the arm, no obvious cause of death… Hermione shivered and shook herself, she grabbed a few of her own books on symbols and the old Virginia legends, specifically ones that had the legends of East Hollow in them and headed out.

She wanted to be sure she had plenty of time before the guys showed up today to get some coffee and gather all the info in the library they would need.

A little while later even she had to admit to herself that she might have put some extra effort into getting ready that day. Making sure her hair was controlled, a little mascara, and her normal outfit of jeans, boots and a tank top with her leather coat.

She made her way over to the diner to get coffee for the three library workers and walked the rest of the way to work. Adam and Rachel, who usually started a little earlier than Hermione, were already there so she set the coffees down on their desk and settled in.

"Oh sweet Jesus Mione you are the best!" Adam praised her, hugging his coffee.

"Ready to help pull books about Beaufort for those guys?" She replied.

Nearly an hour later the three were sitting at the main desk chatting when Sam and Dean entered.

"Man candy alert!" Adam said to Hermione while Rachel just silently laughed at the mortified look on both Sam and Hermione's faces. Dean, on the other hand, looked quite pleased with himself upon hearing Adam's exclamation.

"Ready to get to work?" She asked standing and leading the two men to where she and Adam had set up their table of books on the topic.

"Jesus how much history does that creepy old place have!" Dean exclaimed looking over the big pile of books.

"Virginia is one of the oldest states in the country, there's a fair bit. Beaufort Manor has been around this town since it was established." Hermione told them.

They all sat down at the table while Hermione began selecting the books she needed to begin. Sam seemed fascinated by the amount of history while Dean looked crushed at the idea of having to read all of them.

"Virginia was originally filled with Iroquois, Algonquin and Siouan people before the Europeans arrived, and then it was colonized and has been ever since. Beaufort Manor was home to one of the first families in this area, the Beaufort's obviously, they kept the home in their family for generations, later they were slaveholders and involved in the civil war. Mr. Thomas Beaufort was killed by his slaves once the civil war ended." Hermione began from memory.

"The next family moved in during the late 1860's, the Cramleys. They were another well off family, considered to be carpetbaggers, northerners who moved in during reconstruction to exploit the area, and again the head of the family was killed, this time killed by town people resentful of non-locals moving into one of the nicest homes in the area. This pattern goes on with one more family, this time locals. The Parsons moved into the home and this time the wife Eva killed her husband William Parsons, no one is really sure why." Hermione finished her speech on the history of the house, Sam again looking far more interested than Dean whose eyes had glazed over after the first family.

"So basically that creepy ass place has a long history of dudes getting ganked?" Dean asked.

"That's one way to put it, sure. After the Parsons family left in 1927 nobody has wanted to live in that home. It's remained empty since, collecting dust, legends and ghost stories meant to scare the locals and tourists. These are all the books we have on the legends as well as a few from my own library. Anything else you think you'll need?"

Sam was already lost into research mode and had his head in a book so Dean spoke up. "Yeah actually, you seem pretty smart, how are you with symbols?"

"Depends on what kind of symbols you mean. I've studied a few kinds."

Dean produced some photos they had taken at the crime scene of various symbols that had been there. Taking note of the way Hermione reacted to each of them.

"This one here" she said pointing at a curved line with what looked to Dean like squiggles on it "… this is Ottastafur, a runic symbol that's meant to instill fear in the enemy." Hermione looked to be in deep thought as she moved pictures around.

Hermione moved onto the next photo "These…" she said pointing at a few lines with dots on them "are what some people call moon glyphs, these two specifically represent power and blood…. This is a very odd combination of symbols you have here, there's no consistency as to the origins or even the age the symbols are from." she commented.

Hermione fell silent for a few moments, even Sam had looked up when she had identified a couple symbols he hadn't been able to. Huh, Moon Glyphs, who even knew that was a thing, Dean thought.

"You've missed a couple symbols you know. Here and here." She said pointing at what he and Sam had thought were just disturbances in the dirt and not actual symbols. "They're basic old runes, this being death and this one is said to induce madness."

"Wow, they really had runes for everything didn't they... There's a couple more pictures if you don't mind, Joanna's body is in the picture, but there are symbols we can't identify and you're really on a roll. Do you mind?" Dean hoped she would be able to help, he was tired of Sam's permanent bitch face since he hadn't been able to figure them out.

Hermione visibly braced herself and muttered a "Sure why not."

Dean produced a couple more pictures and as soon as Hermione looked at them she paled and began to mutter to herself. "…No. No way, it can't be... I can't tell you about these."

"Why not? Do you recognize them? Why not?" Dean rapid fired questions at her.

Hermione took a deep breath to calm herself, eyes still glued on the pictures. She knew she had already given herself away so why not just come clean, it wasn't as though they could really do anything to her, right?

"Can you come by my house later? I can…I'll talk then, I... I need to leave."

Hermione rose and gathered her things, saying a couple words to Rachel that sounded like personal and emergency she practically ran out the door and presumably to her house.

Sam and Dean looked at each other, maybe this was their kind of case after all. Hermione obviously knew something they didn't, hopefully by tonight they would find out what. Sam turned and went back into research mode pulling more books out of the pile Hermione and the assistant had created for them.

Dean sat and stared at the photos a little longer hoping to figure out what exactly had spooked Hermione so bad.

Eventually he sighed and told Sam he was going to go and get the autopsy results, tired of staring at books pretending to research. Dead bodies he was good with, hours of research not so much. Dean rose and left the library with glare from Adam and a curious look from Rachel, no doubt wondering what he had done to Hermione to make her leave so abruptly. He sighed, rubbing his face.

"Alright Baby, time to get some answers." He muttered to the Impala as they rumbled out of the lot blasting Metallica from the windows.


	4. Chapter 4

AN: I just have to say Thank You so much to everyone who has been reading this. The amount of follows and favorites and super nice reviews has been so much more than I had expected. You guys are awesome! I only have one more chapter pre-done so any ideas for the future of this story are always welcome! Let me know what you would like to see!

Again, I own nothing but the story line.

* * *

Hermione had practically run home from the library after seeing those photos. All she could think about was getting home behind her wards and hopefully flooing Harry. She locked her home up tight behind her and made sure to triple check that all wards around it were up and working before going to her fireplace. She had had it connected once she heard of the death in the town just as a precaution, call it paranoia if you want, but after years of being around Harry she had learned it was better to be too cautious than not cautious enough. She threw the powder into the fireplace and yelled "Potter Manor!" she waited a moment and yelled Harry's name a few times to the empty room she was looking into. Harry and Ginny had moved into Potter Manor after the war had ended and were hoping to start their own family soon. Eventually he walked into the room looking quite confused to see Hermione's face in the flames.

"Mione? What's going on? Everything alright over there?"

"No Harry it's really not…. There was a murder in town the other day and a couple guys are here investigating. They came to ask me about some local legends and the symbols at the scene… Most were runic in origin and then they showed me another picture..." Hermione took a deep breath "Harry, one was the symbol of the Hallows, and the other…. It was the dark mark Harry, I'm sure of it. It was crudely drawn or tattooed or something onto the girls arm."

"… That doesn't make any sense… why the mark of the Hallows? The dark mark could be from some of the escaped death eaters I suppose… Hermione, if that's true you need to be extra cautious until you figure out what's going on. Who are these men that are investigating?" Harry asked her going into full Auror mode.

"Sam and Dean… something, I don't even know their last names. I think they may be hunters Harry. I mean, a mysterious death, asking about local history and legends, and now the symbols? They have to be." She reasoned to herself. After all they didn't look like any FBI agents she could imagine. Shit, hunters weren't exactly known to be a witch's biggest fan.

Hermione had encountered some hunters in her travels after leaving England, they hadn't loved that she was a witch until she had explained there was a huge difference between her type of magic and the witches that hunters were used to. Even after her explanation her relationship with most hunters was strained at the best of times, they simply gave each other a wide berth. Hopefully that bit of information about different types of witches had spread through the hunting community a bit. She had a feeling she was going to have a hard time explaining this all to the two boys without them instantly wanting to kill her just for being what she was the moment they heard the word witch.

"Well if they are hunters be careful how you approach all this Mione. They aren't known to be the think first shoot later types. Usually they just shoot... I'll go to the ministry and look into any death eater factions that may have gone to that area after the war and get back to you. Be safe over there by yourself okay? We'll come visit you soon."

Hermione pulled her head out of the fireplace and tried to calm herself down. Having her wand with her again now that she was home was helping but she knew she wouldn't be able to fully relax until Harry got back to her and the hunters didn't try and kill her after hearing about witches and wizards. Sighing she made some tea to calm her nerves, and oh just fantastic, now the shakes that were starting, ever since the cruciatus curse was used on her in the war for so long she had the occasional tremor she couldn't control. She grabbed her newest copy of Hogwarts: A History, which included a section about the war and the golden trio, and then she sat herself down and hoped like hell the boys would give her a fair chance to explain herself instead of just shooting her on the spot.

* * *

Dean, who had left the library shortly after Hermione's dramatic exit, went to get the results of Joanna's autopsy. The weird symbol on the girls arm had been permanently etched in and she had puncture marks behind her ears, missing a specific piece of her brain. Dean's thoughts, and Sam's once he was filled in, instantly went to a Kitsune, but that didn't explain any of the symbols or why her body was found where or how it was. Maybe it was just a dumping ground? But the body was obviously laid out that way on purpose, and why draw symbols? None of this was making any sense.

Dean rubbed his face and sighed, this case was giving him a major headache. The boys had met up at their hotel to compare notes before meeting Hermione. They still had a whole lot of Jack and Shit to go on. He needed more pie, maybe a burger, and definitely a beer. Sam and Dean headed for the diner to get some lunch and noticed that same waitress, Siobhan, was working, she approached their table eyeing them both.

"Hey guys, what can I get for you?" she asked, snapping her gum.

"Sammy'll have a salad, I'll need a burger and fries, oh, and pie."

Sam gave him the bitch face for ordering for him while Dean just ignored it. Instead going over what they knew about Hermione in his head, which really wasn't much.

Once she brought the food out Dean asked Siobhan if she knew much about Hermione. He just couldn't figure her out. When the waitress gave him a funny look and began to question him he used upsetting her as a reason for being curious.

"Well, she's kind of an odd girl. Moved here about six months ago from somewhere in England, Apparently after traveling all over trying to get over something awful is the rumor I heard. Got a nasty scar on her arm she refuses to talk about, nobody really knows what happened to her…. She's young but seems loaded, bought herself one of the nicest houses around here just for her and her cat. Oh! She gets owls showing up at her house all hours of the day for some reason. Miones also, like, super super smart too. Like genius or something."

"Wow, Okay thank you, that's super helpful." Sam spoke up since Dean was still processing the rapid speed Siobhan had given them all the information in.

"No prob." She said and went to her other tables.

Dean scarfed down his pie, processing the information she told them. He realised that they didn't actually know where this Hermione lived.

"Excuse me Siobhan?" He called her over.

"Yeah?"

"Can you tell me where Hermione's house is? She told us to come by later and were not actually sure where she lives."

"Oh, Sure! She's in one of the big houses over on Walden. Just look for the big brick colonial house with the two chimneys and a wrap around. You really can't miss it."

* * *

Dean drove the Impala over to the area Siobhan had told them to go to. He felt so out of place, this was obviously a money neighborhood and he so did not blend in. Sam pointed out the one that was most likely Hermione's and Dean pulled up to the house.

He got out of the car and gave a low whistle. Siobhan hadn't been kidding about the "obviously loaded" comment.

"Nice place" he commented on the way up to the door.

They stood on the porch for a moment before knocking on the front door not entirely sure what to expect after that morning. Hermione opened it a few seconds later looking a little more stressed than earlier, holding tea and a book. Dean couldn't help but snicker, she just looked so… English.

"Please come in." she said leading them into a sitting room. "Can I get you anything?"

"We're good thanks" Sam said answering for both of them. Really they just wanted to know what the hell was happening in this town.

Hermione sat in her wingback with her legs folded underneath her, fidgeting with her tea cup nervously. Taking a deep breath she forced herself to confront this.

"Before we start I think perhaps a proper introduction is in order. I'm Hermione Granger, and you're not FBI are you? You're hunters." she said diving right in.

Stunned silence met her question from the two boys.

"I met a hunter in my travels before I settled here. A man named Bobby Singer, we had a nice long chat about witches and the different kinds of magic there are." She said casually as though she was just discussing the weather.

"You know Bobby?!" Dean nearly yelled looking gobsmacked.

"I do."

"Well shit… um, I'm Dean Winchester and this is my brother Sammy. You're right, we're not FBI, we're hunters."

Hermione stood up and paced the front of the fireplace. She had heard of them from Bobby. He talked of them like they were his son's, Dean in particular she knew had a hatred for witches. She wasn't sure if it would be safe to reveal herself now. She paced a few more seconds working herself up, the shakes getting worse thanks to stress, before getting an idea.

Dean and Sam just sat uncomfortable and extremely on edge in the home of this stranger who obviously knew way more than they did. And apparently Bobby too.

"I think before we continue, perhaps a phone call to Mr. Singer is in order." Hermione said before turning and grabbing the phone not giving the brothers much chance to say anything, Dean just looked at Sam eyebrows raised in a what the hell is happening type of face.

"Maybe this way you won't kill me before I can even say anything." She muttered to herself just quiet enough that the boys wouldn't hear. Bobby had latched onto Hermione as a new source for cases that were unexplainable even in their world of the supernatural. Witchcraft, the natural kind not the deal-with-a-demon kind, was a whole new world and a possible new threat that Bobby felt was his responsibility to learn all about.

"Hi Mr. Singer? It's Hermione Granger calling." Sam and Dean heard her say, Dean almost laughed when he heard Bobby tell her 'stop calling me Mr. Singer dammit I told ya, it's Bobby. Just Bobby.'

"Right, Bobby, well I have the Winchester brothers here at my home, I thought it might be best to allow you to explain some things to them before I tell them about everything. They may be more receptive to hearing it from you I believe." She hoped like hell Bobby would be able to help, if anyone could make the boys listen he could.

'Oh Balls… Alright put 'em on." He sighed.

"Thank you."

Hermione turned and nervously handed the phone to the Winchester brothers with a tentative smile. Sam took it and immediately hit speakerphone and Dean started "Hey Bobby."

"Boys. It's good to hear from ya. Now listen here. Hermione is a good person no matter what you find out, If I find out you do something stupid I'm gonna kick both your asses. Got it?"

"Yes, Bobby." They answered in unison looking slightly worried, this was just getting weirder and weirder by the minute. What was up with Hermione that she had to be vouched for by Bobby?

"Now Dean, you especially need to listen to this, I know how pig headed you get… Witches are not just limited to the one kind we know of." He started "There's the ones who have sold their souls obviously, like we're used to but then there are also Wiccans who are connected to the earth's power, and then.. Boys, there's a third kind. These witches are born with a power inside them, all their own, no deals and no demons, no innate evil. They for the most part are good people but with a little extra kick to them."

"What the shit Bobby! You're trying to tell me that not all witches are evil bitches? Why haven't we ever met one? I don't believe you, this is ridiculous." Dean exploded looking livid.

"You have now." Hermione interrupted.

Dean was instantly up out of his seat, gun pulled. "Sonofabitch!"

Hermione just calmly stood and looked at him. "I'm not evil you know. Bobby just told you this."

"Dean!" Sam yelled still holding the phone. "Calm down! Bobby just vouched for her doesn't that count for anything? Maybe we should hear her out? If she's evil you can shoot her later."

"Balls! Dean! You Idjit! You pulled a gun didn't you?! Put it away, it won't do you no good anyhow." Bobby grumped from the other end of the phone.

Dean wavered but didn't lower his weapon. Getting impatient, and frankly tired of having a gun on her, Hermione calmly waved her hand and Dean's gun went flying towards her. She caught it and set it aside. Wandless magic really was a neat trick.

"Sam! Dean! Just listen to the girl's story before you go shootin' things and bein' jackasses." Bobby was yelling from the phone.

Sam and Dean stood and looked at each other for a moment. Dean was breathing hard and looked ready to either run away or punch something at any moment. "Fine! But if she kills us Bobby I'm coming back to haunt your ass. She just stole my gun!" he yelled sounding slightly petulant.

Hermione took the phone back and looked at the boys. Sam was eyeing her nervously and Dean still looked angry.

"Thanks Bobby, I'll talk to you later okay? Take care."

She let out a breath she hadn't realised she had been holding and nervously looked at the boys before she began, not entirely sure she wasn't about to be tackled and killed any time now. "Um... I guess maybe I'll start at the beginning?" getting zero response but a glare from dean she continued,

"My name is Hermione Jean Granger and I was born in London. Both my parents were normal people, dentists, we lived in the suburbs like a typical family. When I was eleven I got a letter inviting me to Hogwarts. This is a school of witchcraft and wizardry, meant to teach young people born with magic how to control it and master it. My parents thought it was just a prank, until a woman showed up to our house and explained. In England we have an entire wizarding world which is hidden from non-magical people. We have our own government, banks, jobs, everything. Many magical folk avoid the non-magical world actually. "

Neither Dean or Sam missed the way she always use the past tense when referring to her parents, or the fact that she had seemed to be shaking since they arrived.

"You've gotta be shitting me. You want me to believe that you guys have an entire fricken world hidden somewhere over there? This is ridiculous." Dean protested.

Calmly Hermione just ignored him and went on to explain the years she spent at Hogwarts, her magic, her power, and eventually she got to the wizarding war.

"A few years ago, a truly evil wizard came back to his full power in our world. He believed in blood purity, and me being a muggleborn or someone born to non-magical parents, I was a huge target. It didn't help that one of my best friends is Harry Potter, the only person Voldemort had ever failed to kill. After our sixth year off school we went on the run for a long time, hiding, and hunting the Horcruxes. Horcruxes were objects that contained a piece of Voldemort's soul, the man was so insane and afraid of death he literally tore his soul apart in order to prevent himself from being killed. One night we were captured and taken to Malfoy Manor where a follower of Voldemort stole my wand and proceeded to torture me." She looked at the boys who had finally sat back down and seemed to be listening. She showed them her arm. The word Mudblood crudely carved into her skin, still looking almost fresh years later, was enough to make even them cringe. Hermione said all this in an almost aloof and clinical way, as if she had detached herself from the memories, She stopped for a second tracing the word on her arm lost in thought.

"We ended up finally defeating Voldemort and once our side won the war and began to rebuild our world I left, I needed time away from the reminders of loss and death, and there was not much left tying me to England. I traveled for some time, which is when I encountered your friend Bobby who had been hunting some Arachnes and got in over his head, and then I ended up here."

Sam had decided pretty much right after talking to Bobby that Hermione was not an evil person, however after hearing her story he felt almost a connection. He was also a freak, getting visions thanks to yellow eyes, and had tried to run away from the supernatural as well. Dean still wasn't entirely sure of her, his hatred of witches was deeply engrained, but with some more convincing from Sam did agree that she seemed to be on their side, at least for now.

"Fine. I believe you. Can I have my gun back though? I feel naked." He whined.

"Try and shoot me and it won't go well." Hermione warned handing it back to him, her hair crackled with electricity from pent up energy being so on edge all day. Dean's eyes widened and he, for once in his life, stayed quiet just nodding.

For Hermione, she was trusting Bobby's information on the Winchesters and hoped they would prove to be useful should there turn out to be death eaters responsible for the murder. She wasn't prepared to deal with this herself and, in Bobby's words, the Winchesters were damn good hunters. She braced herself for the inevitable barrage of questions she knew were coming about her getting spooked by the symbols.


	5. Chapter 5

So, I just have to say I'm completely overwhelmed by the amount of people reading this. I never expected there to be so many! THANK YOU so much for all the nice reviews, they motivate me more than you can imagine!

* * *

Hermione took a moment to compose herself and looked at the brothers currently sitting on her couch, both were looking at her with a mixture of wariness, sadness and understanding.

"Follow me." Was all she said, standing and bringing them to a door that was just off of her sitting room. She waved a stick she had retrieved from her desk muttering a spell to unlock the room, it clicked open.

"This room contains everything I have kept from the magical world. It will also help me to explain those symbols you asked me about earlier."

Sam and Dean slowly walked into the room. It was filled with all kinds of weird things, there were cauldrons, moving pictures, bottles and bottles of what appeared to be potions? Were those even real? What the hell kind of pictures moved? Were those people waving?

Hermione pulled out a few specific books and opened them to the pages she needed. She pointed at the first one, Sam and Dean immediately recognized the symbol from beside the body. A triangle with the line and a circle in it.

"That," she began "is the symbol of the Deathly Hallows. It represents the Elder wand, the Resurrection stone, and finally the invisibility cloak." She said as she pointed to the different parts of the symbol respectively. "I have no idea why this would be at the scene however, as we know where all the aspects that are encompassed in it are now. My friend Harry has all three items and the symbol itself holds no power."

Hermione then turned and pulled another book. _Foule Magick through the Ages by Freya Hoprusk._ Hermione opened it and there it was, the symbol from the girls arm. Dean looked at the symbol as it moved about on the page, a serpent twisted through a skull. As if magic wasn't already creepy enough, he thought, why not add moving snake pictures.

"This was the symbol of Voldemort and his followers. The most evil wizards of our time were all branded with this mark. Harry, Ron, and I defeated their leader Lord Voldemort a couple years back in the war I was talking about before, however, so unless a faction of death eaters escaped to the U.S. I don't know why it would appear at your scene."

Hermione turned to pull another book but this time instead of opening it she hugged it to herself for a moment before wordlessly holding in out to Sam. Dean noticed the gold lettering on the front said _Hogwarts: A History_. Sam gave Hermione a questioning look.

"I want you to take that with you for now, it has much of my world's history as well as a section on myself, the war and the death eaters I mentioned before. It should help clear things up for you."

Sam thanked her and immediately flipped through it. Dean was still fidgety and uncomfortable. How was it possible that he had never known of this magical world? He had been told since birth that all witches were evil and needed to die. Hermione was forcing him to re-evaluate some of the main beliefs in his life and he really, really, didn't like it. How many other things did he blindly believe that his dad had taught him? What if his Dad had been wrong about more than just witches? God if he thought he had needed a drink earlier he needed one a hell of a drink now.

"Can I ask you some more questions?" he muttered to Hermione. Sam was already lost in this little room of all new knowledge, Dean knew he'd never be able to pry him out of there until he was ready.

"Sure, let's go outside." She said to Dean "Sam, Don't touch anything but the books, there are some volatile potions in here." She warned, turning and leaving after receiving a grunt of recognition from Sam.

Hermione walked to her kitchen and, as if she was reading his mind, pulled two beer from the fridge and silently handed him one. She went to her sitting room, again placing herself in the single chair across from the couch. Dean couldn't help but admire the way her body looked and the beautiful color of her hair, the obvious strength she had to have to go through all she had. He shook his head, what the hell Dean, he chastised, don't drop your guard just because she has a nice ass. That's how you get dead, he reminded himself.

"So… you wanted to talk?" Hermione tentatively asked not entirely sure what to expect from Dean.

"Uh, yeah. Sorry this is just a lot to take in" Dean sighed. "I don't even know where to start. None of this makes any sense."

"I understand, Bobby has told me a lot about you. I honestly expected you to just kill me as soon as you heard the word witch." She almost laughed as she said this.

"What's that word mean? The one on your arm?" he asked watching as she again ran her fingers over the raised lines on her forearm.

"Mudblood… it's exactly what it sounds like, dirty blood. It was meant to be a permanent reminder to me that I am not and never will be the as good as those born to a magical family. An evil witch, yes we also have some evil ones I won't deny that, was working with Voldemort during the war. Myself and my two best friends were out in the forest hunting horcruxes, the various pieces of Voldemort's soul, when we were captured. I cast a spell that somewhat hid our identities to try and save their lives, instead all it did was get me tortured. Bellatrix was convinced I had something of hers, she carved this into my arm a few years ago now, but the knife she used was cursed. It will never completely heal… but I refuse to allow her the satisfaction of being ashamed of it. That's why I've never bothered to hide it, I feel like if I do that then she wins. " Hermione told him.

She really didn't know why she had just word-vomited all that. Hermione barely knew this guy and here she was spilling her guts to him about one of the most awful nights of her life. Something just told her Dean wouldn't treat her as fragile and pathetic after hearing her story as Harry and Ron had, despite thinking they were doing the right thing all it had done was drive Hermione even further away.

Dean on the other hand didn't know why but the story she had just told him made him livid, but in a protective way, it was weird. He hadn't even known her a week but he could tell she wasn't a normal twenty year old girl. Like him she had seen and experienced way more than she should have, but she refused to let it break her. Dean tended to deal with his past through liquor, women, and food, even if he would never admit it to Sam he knew that it was just his way of not dwelling on the god-awful shit pile that was his life. Then here was Hermione, literally tortured to save her friends and refusing to let the crazy bitch win, in a weird way Dean found that so incredibly attractive. He took another drink of his beer trying to pull his thoughts together, Stop letting them wander off the case he internally yelled at himself. You'll be gone in a few weeks and probably never see Hermione again, what's the point? Don't let her distract you.

Hermione apparently got tired of the silence and waiting for his next question so she took it upon herself to continue their conversation. "Why do you do it?" she asked quietly "Hunting. It can't be easy always on the move and hunting all these creatures you should know nothing about."

He let out a low chuckle. Again, he would never admit it but he did wonder what it would be like to have a normal life sometimes.

"My dad. That's why I do it," he sighed heavily. What a stupid reason. "When I was a kid my mom was killed by a demon, and my dad became hell bent on finding it. He's still no closer. He spent years training me and Sammy after she died, for as long as I can remember we've either been training or on the road waiting for him to finish a hunt. If we were lucky once in a while he would leave us with one of his hunting buddies like Bobby for a bit and we could almost pretend to be normal. Sammy never forgave him for that."

Christ, here they were spilling their guts to each other like some stupid daytime talk show. He didn't do chick flick moments god damn it, but for some reason he was fine with telling this girl everything.

"I'm sorry, that must've been hard not really having a home. At least I had mine for a while before Hogwarts and magic. I got a normal life for eleven years before it all became crazy. Giant snakes, magic rocks, escaped convicts, and on and on. It was ridiculous really going through all that while we were supposedly safe at Hogwarts, funny how Harry almost died every year though." She said the last part almost to herself.

Snakes and magic rocks? What the crap? He would definitely have to ask Sam about all this once he was done reading up on everything possible in the weird magic room.

"What about now? Why aren't you with your parents now that it's done?" he asked. He had noticed the way they were almost always mentioned in past tense but he had hoped he was wrong about why.

"I can't be." She started, her tremors making a reappearance. "During the war I was one of the main targets of Voldemort. So, I figured that he would probably use my parents to get to me. I… I modified their memories and moved them to Australia. It didn't work… They were killed not long after that by the ones hunting me. I got them killed." She couldn't help it, her eyes began to well up, shit. Don't be weak Hermione.

"I'm sorry." He sighed. "That's… that's rough." He didn't know what to say to that. Emotional moments were not his strong suit.

"Are you okay?" Dean asked after a moment, the shakes he had been noticing earlier were getting worse. "You've been sort of… shaking since we got here."

"I'm fine. It's just after effects of being held under the Cruciatus Curse for an extended time, it should fade over time apparently. When I'm stressed out it happens more often." She stretched and finished off the beer she had been nursing. Maybe the beer would relax her enough to stop shaking.

"Oh." The _What_ curse? It sure didn't sound friendly. Why was he so worried about this girl? Dean really didn't understand why he was feeling this. "What's the Cruci-whatever Curse? If you don't mind explaining."

"It's one of three unforgivable curses in the magical world. The use of it lands the person a one way ticket to our prison. The one used on me, The Cruciatus, it's the torture curse. A particular favorite of Bellatrix's, she had me under the curse for hours. It's meant to cause unbelievable pain to the person it's used on, prolonged exposure has been known to cause insanity, and apparently minor tremors if used for a smaller amount of time, if you can call hours smaller."

Jesus Christ. Was there anything Hermione hadn't been through? Dean couldn't help but admire her a little for still being stable and not giving up. They both sat in Hermione's sitting room in silence, picking at the labels on their beer bottles. Both lost in thought about their own and each other's lives and how similar they had been in some ways. For the first time Dean thought that this may be one girl he would actually keep in touch with after leaving town. After all, it couldn't hurt to have a Glinda on their side right?

* * *

So?! Again reviews are appreciated and as this is the last chapter I have done input about anything you would like to see happen is always welcome!


	6. Chapter 6

Sam was sitting at the small two-man table in the crappy motel on his laptop while Dean took a shower singing a loud and off-key rendition of Eye of the Tiger. Last night, after Sam had practically devoured the book he was given he couldn't believe the shit that was apparently real and had happened in Hermione's world. When Sam went into the sitting room, finally venturing out from the room they had left him in, he had found Hermione and Dean both staring at the fire deep in their own thoughts. Sam had never seen Dean relaxed enough around a stranger in order for that to happen and had been surprised at the sight, even if to a normal person it wouldn't mean much, he knew Dean better.

The singing in the shower stopped and Dean made his way out of the bathroom ready to go try and find some more answers about the case. Dean sat on his bed and looked to Sam, "So… Can you tell me more about what you read in that book?"

"Can you be more specific? Hogwarts: A history covered a ton things. Or should I just take a wild guess and say you want to know more about Hermione?" Sam said hiding a smirk.

"Shut up. She just told me a couple things that made me curious. Like something about there being a magic rock, giant snakes and some sort of Cruci-a-whatever curse she had used on her." Dean rambled.

Sam just looked at him over his laptop as if Dean had grown two heads. He just stared at him for a few moments before bursting out with a "Dude… You actually like this one! Holy Crap."

"Shut up. Do not."

"Do so!"

"Bitch."

"Jerk."

"Ugh, Fine!" Dean sighed "She's… just different. Some of the things she said made me wonder if Dad was maybe wrong about more than just witches…"

Sam couldn't believe he was hearing this. Dean questioning what Dad said? Since when? Dean was always Dad's perfect little soldier. But hey, if Dean was finally going to start thinking for himself not just following Dad's lead like he always had, Sam wasn't going to wreck it. He sighed and thought maybe he'd start easing Dean into the idea that the world wasn't entirely black and white but that there were shades of grey whether Dean liked to admit it or not.

"The book she gave me was insane, the world she's from is totally different. Lots of the things we hunt exist there too but aren't evil. Like ghosts for example, the school she went to had mascot type things that were ghosts…"

"Ghosts? Like Casper the friendly ghost? That's messed up man, why would they let ghosts be around their kids all the time?"

"…Because they aren't like the ghosts we're used to, They're not trying to kill anyone or torturing anyone. They have all kinds of creatures that they just live alongside with, I really wish I could get to see it."

Now it was Dean's turn to look at Sam like he had two heads. Living alongside with creatures? That sounded just screwed up to him.

"Okay… how about we skip this part for now." Dean sighed, he wasn't ready to have his world completely turned on its head. "…Hermione?"

"…She's had it rough man. I can give you the book if you want to read for yourself. The curse you asked about was used by some evil bitch on Hermione during the Second Wizarding War. Bellatrix, weird name I know, used it on her because she thought Hermione stole something of hers. It's a torture curse described in here as being like a thousand hot knives stabbing someone…" Sam trailed off noticing the dark look on Dean's face.

Dean didn't understand why but he had the sudden urge to go track down this Bellatrix person and kill her, she definitely fell under the definition of evil thing he could kill and not feel bad about. He was sitting on the bed trying to get his temper under control while Sam wisely stayed quiet.

Suddenly the sound of Dean's phone going off interrupted his train of thought centered on how to kill a witch. Okay maybe he wasn't completely over his ingrained hatred of witches, so sue him.

"What." He greeted the caller.

"Uhhh, Agent Winwood? It's the sheriff."

"Oh! Yeah Sorry, What's happening?" Dean asked, shit, he and Sam weren't exactly acing the professionalism aspect of this case.

"There's been another one. Another woman on the same property in the forest, Thought you might wanna come take a look at this one."

"Shit. Okay Thanks for letting us know, we'll be there in a few."

Dean hung up and tried to refocus himself on this case, the whole reason he was here.

"Sammy! Gear up, we've got a fresh one." Dean announced heading for the Impala.

Sam jumped up grabbed his things and made a run for the car before Dean peeled out of the lot without him. His brother wasn't the most patient person in the world.

* * *

Sam and Dean parked as close to the scene as they could before walking the trails to the old Beaufort Manor. It wasn't long before they could hear the local police chattering away about the new victim. A small town like East Hollow meant that it wouldn't be long before the whole town knew about this.

They made it to the scene and saw another young woman probably around the same age as Joanna had been, laying in the exact same position as they had found the first victim as well. This time however they were on the other side of the property.

"Boys." The Sheriff greeted them "Looks like it's not just a once off after all."

"Shit, what've you got?" Den asked looking around.

"Lisa Linwood. She's 27 worked at the local apothecary. No visible signs of what did this, hopefully the autopsy will tell us more. And again, a bunch of weird symbols drawn around the area, new ones not just ones from the last murder."

"Thanks Sheriff." Sam said as Dean had already wandered off to look around some more.

The sheriff just nodded and walked off, leaving the scene entirely a few minutes later. Sam and Dean again took pictures of all the symbols around the area hoping they might be able to get them identified, maybe it would help explain just what the hell was happening in this town. Just like the last time there really wasn't much to go on at the scene so they soon left hoping to get information elsewhere. Both of them were getting extremely frustrated by the fact that nothing on this case was making much sense.

* * *

Hermione had gotten up that morning completely exhausted from the sheer stress of everything that had happened in the last few days. She wasn't in any rush getting to the library that morning, and took her time to get ready and get the biggest coffee she could before walking into the library.

"Hey guys" She greeted Rachel and Adam "Sorry I'm late."

"No prob Mione, you didn't miss much." Rachel shrugged.

Adam was sitting at the desk behind her trying to balance a pen on his face. "I'm bored." He whined, the library was completely empty making it an even slower day than usual.

Suddenly Adam sat up straight, the pen clattering to the floor after rolling off his face. "But things are looking up, Hello handsome… Mione I think you have visitors." Adam winked at her.

Hermione was convinced Adam was on a mission to embarrass her, there was no other explanation for it. She turned around to see what Adam and Rachel were staring at behind her and saw Sam and Dean coming in the main doors. Sam seemed to be elbowing Dean saying something to him quietly while grinning away, Dean just looked annoyed and if it was even possible for him a little embarrassed.

Dean came to a stop in front of her desk looking annoyed while Sam just hung back and looked like a kid on Christmas morning for some reason. Something weird was happening with them today and Hermione wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know what.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" she asked.

"Hey Mione, Mind if we ask you some more symbol related questions? There was another murder this morning." Dean said grumpily.

"Um, sure. Why don't we go to the local history area again?" She said as she led them over to where they had been the first time she had helped them out.

Once they all sat down at the table Sam pulled out a bunch of pictures and handed them to Hermione.

"Any chance you can help us with these symbols again?"

"Sure, I can try and see if I recognize any of them."

Hermione frowned and focused on the pictures, there was one where she could see the victim and she couldn't believe she hadn't asked before now who it was. "Oh Lisa… Why would anyone want to do this to you?" she sighed. Once Hermione had learned that the apothecary where Lisa had been working was the only place she could buy the few ingredients that she needed for her occasional potions she brewed she had spent a fair bit of time in the store.

"You knew her?"

"Just from the Apothecary. It's the only place I can get some of the ingredients for things I need. She was a lovely girl, always helpful."

She looked to the photos again and there were no reasoning to the types of symbols used and none of them had the same origin or even the same time frame.

"It looks like someone is just picking random symbols again based on meaning and nothing else. No similarities in anything but the literal meaning of them. This one is the rune called Eihwaz meaning Defence…" She trailed off and Dean was pretty sure she mumbled something about 'never getting that stupid one wrong again' whatever that was about.

"The symbols of the Hallows is drawn here again I see, but they've added something to it… here." she said pointing near the bottom of the symbol to what looked like two G's intertwined. "This symbol was also associated with Gellert Grindelwald at one point which could explain the G's I suppose. The rest of these symbols don't mean much, they're similar to the first set of symbols all meaning something along the line of death or destruction and then the dark mark on the arm."

"I hate to say it but this looks like it's more of a magical thing than our kind of thing. Have you heard anything about if there are some of those whack-jobs from your war over here in the U.S. yet? That would explain the symbols we keep finding and the fact that you've known both victims in some way."

"It's a small town… pretty much everyone knew the girls. Harry hasn't gotten back to me yet about the factions no. But there does seem to be a connection to the magical world but that doesn't explain other aspects of your guys' case though." Hermione pointed out.

"What aspects?" Sam asked curiously.

"Like, why always at Beaufort Manor? Why these specific girls? Anyone from my world would know enough about symbols to keep some sort of consistency." Hermione pointed out.

"True enough I guess, I just can't get past the constant signs pointing back to the magic world." Sam said.

"Sammy, I think maybe we should go see if the autopsy is done. Maybe that could help shed some light here." Dean sighed.

"Come by the house again later?" Hermione asked him "I'll try contacting Harry again and see what's taking so long."

Sam had already begun heading out of the library to the Impala hoping that just maybe Hermione could help Dean open up to the idea that Dad wasn't always right.

"Sure. I'll come by tonight." Dean said, he hadn't even noticed that Sam was already gone.


	7. Chapter 7

Wow! I cant believe the response to this story. Being the first story I've ever written I didn't expect much so I'm blown away! There will finally be some Dean/Hermione action this chapter and some explanations. As always reviews are always helpful and if there is anything you would like to happen in the story just let me know! You guys are the best!

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Adam had practically fallen over with excitement when he had heard Dean was going to be at her house later that night. The mood however, was somewhat dampened when Hermione had shared the reason Dean and Sam had come by the library was because Lisa had been killed. East Hollow was small. Small enough that the news of two people being killed was now all anyone could talk about. And talk they did, everyone had a theory and everyone was convinced their weird neighbor was the culprit.

Hermione had finally locked up the library that evening and began her walk home. She couldn't help but notice the way the town was beginning to change after the events of the last week, two people being killed just wasn't something that happened here. The locals began gossiping about each other, even more than usual, about who it might have been and people were more aware of their security at home and surroundings when they were out around town.

She let her thoughts wander to the fact that, like it or not, it really did seem to be connected back to her and the magical world. Exactly how though made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Before she knew it she was at her house and Hermione knew she likely didn't have all that much time before Dean and maybe Sam would be by.

She went inside and began to prepare herself some food and then freshen herself up a bit before she saw the brothers, well maybe more so for Dean than Sam if she were honest. It wasn't more than fifteen minutes after she had finished sprucing herself up that her doorbell rang.

Shit! She hadn't even floo'd Harry yet!

She opened her door to find Dean on her porch but no Sam. She couldn't help but be almost nervous at the thought of being alone with Dean in her house. Which was ridiculous she thought, considering all she had been through, a man in her house shouldn't make her feel so nervous.

"Hey, where's Sam?" she asked Dean once she could finally get words out.

"Oh, uh, He said he wanted to stay behind this time and research some more at the room." Dean told her.

She could have sworn he looked almost disappointed when she had asked about Sam. She could've kicked herself as soon as she had said it, why couldn't she have just stopped at hello. She stepped aside so Dean could come inside.

"I'm so sorry! I haven't had a chance to talk to Harry yet, but I can do that right now if you don't mind me flooing him while you're here."

Dean had been slightly surprised that she had instantly asked about Sam, he had hoped she would be a little happier to see him. He tried to cover his flash of disappointment however and made his way inside once she moved out of the way. When she said that she hadn't talked to this Harry person yet he was a little unsure of what he was doing here now until she said she would 'floo' Harry now. Whatever the hell a floo was.

"Uh sure, go for it." Was all he said to Hermione.

To say he was a bit shocked when she went to her fireplace and stuck her head in it would be an understatement. He was pretty sure a "Holy shit! You're insane!" may have slipped out. Hermione just stayed with her head in the now green flames and she yelled into the fireplace "Harry! Harry I know you're home! We need to talk."

Dean just stared at the scene before him equal parts horrified and fascinated as Hermione sat with her head in the fire, he could only hear her side of the conversation so he was a bit lost. This magic crap was weird and he was still freaked the hell out by it.

Hermione pulled her head out of the fireplace and seconds later, before Dean could even get a word out the flames turned bright green again and a tall man with messy black hair was stepping out of them.

"Sonofabitch! What the hell!" Dean yelled jumping back.

Hermione gave the man from the fireplace a giant hug and stepped back turning to Dean.

"Dean, this is my friend Harry I was telling you about. He said he wanted to tell me about the factions that may be over here in person."

"A man just walked out of the god damn fireplace! That's not fuckin normal!"

Hermione just laughed at him, which only served to irritate him further. He just watched a full grown man walk out of a freaking fireplace and she was laughing at him!

"Hi Dean, I'm Harry. My walking out of the fireplace is floo travel, throw floo powder in and then we can travel to any fireplace connected to the floo network." Harry tried to explain giving Hermione a questioning look.

"So? Harry why did you need to come all the way over here to tell me about this?" Hermione asked him wanting to dive right in.

"Cant a guy make an excuse to come visit his best friend? I haven't even seen the house you got yet. None of us know much of anything about what you've been up to since you left." The guy Dean now knew was Harry began to rant.

"Harry. I told you and Ginny to come visit whenever you wanted. Stop stalling and tell me what's happening. Now." Hermione demanded with her hands on her hips looking far more intimidating than anyone her size had a right to.

Harry sighed and dropped onto her couch looking exhausted all of a sudden. Hermione, Dean noticed, went slightly pale and tensed up.

"What is it?" Hermione asked, she knew if Harry was acting like this then it was something bad.

"It's not good, Mione. Are you sure you can't just come home? We can get the American ministry to deal with it and you'll be safe again. Gin and I really miss you." Harry said in a last ditch effort to avoid the topic and get Hermione somewhere safer.

"Harry. I told you I'm not coming back, I can't and you know that. Now spit it out, whatever it is I can handle it." She said getting annoyed.

During all this Dean had been feeling as though he was intruding on a private moment and was about to excuse himself from the conversation.

"Besides, Dean and his brother are hunters and now they know about the magical world. I'm sure with the three of us here it'll be manageable." Hermione said gesturing for him to sit on the couch with her opposite of the one Harry had flopped onto. "Right Dean?" He heard her ask.

Dean couldn't help himself, he didn't know if it was the way she asked or the hopeful look she gave him, or maybe he just wanted an excuse to be near her even longer. Before he knew it he was on the couch right beside her agreeing to help with whatever was happening.

Harry just looked at them for a moment before he began speaking again.

"I hope you know what you're getting into." He said to Dean.

"Mione, there's something you need to know. Azkaban is missing some prisoners, we don't know exactly how or what happened yet. The ministry has kept it quiet so far so that we don't create a public frenzy." Harry began to say.

"That's impossible! People aren't supposed to be able to escape Azkaban… Are you trying to say that the ministry believes that these people are here? In the U.S.? Who is it?" Hermione began to panic.

Dean saw her begin to lose her focus and put his hand on hers, He didn't know why but he felt like it might help her to have someone to borrow some strength from at the moment. Hermione seemed to calm down a bit and Dean liked to believe it was thanks to him.

"Harry… Who? Just tell me."

Harry fidgeted and looked as though he'd rather be anywhere else at the moment and that made Dean nervous. He knew this guy was supposed to be a hero of some kind and he knew Hermione was an unbelievably strong person, so to see both of them so on edge had Dean feeling very worried. What had he gone and gotten himself and Sam into?

"Shit…. There was Rowle, both the Carrows, Rodolphus… and Dolohov. They're all gone. We're working on tracking them down but it wouldn't surprise me if they're here. Mione, you're the most well-known and easily accessible of the war heroes left. You could be their number one target if that's why they escaped." Harry said to her sounding pained to do so.

Dean didn't blame him, I mean who would want to be the one to tell their best friend that there were a bunch of crazies out there trying to kill them. Dean noticed Hermione had begun to have tremors again and was lost in thought. He was pretty sure she was panicking but he really didn't know her well enough to tell. Harry however did seem to know her extremely well and as soon as he noticed it tried to help.

"Hermione, where's the potions Pomfrey gave you? You have to take one, it'll help with the tremors. We can talk about this more later." He said to her, and once he got a response he was gone into the room Hermione indicated.

As soon as Harry was out of the sitting room Hermione grabbed Dean's hand in what felt like a death grip.

"You guys really don't have to stay you know." she began "I'm not trying to send you away but I didn't realize just how bad this was. It's really not safe at all for you." She said. That was when Dean realized just how bad he had fallen for this one.

"You're not getting rid of us." He said gently grabbing her chin and making him look at him. "We're staying. We're helping. Get used to me being around. I don't care that it's dangerous, my entire job is dangerous. Sam and I will not leave you here alone to deal with this. You might not know us very well but we never leave a job unfinished." Dean rambled "… besides, I'd never forgive myself if something happened to you and I wasn't here to stop it." He finished quietly.

Christ, Is this what word vomit is? He thought.

Before he knew it, his arms were full of Hermione who was giving him what felt like the tightest hug he had ever received. He heard a muffled 'thank you' from where Hermione's face was pressed against him before she pulled back. He watched as she wiped a few tears from her face that had fallen and he just couldn't help himself. He leaned in and captured her mouth in a gentle yet intense kiss.

Holy shit.

Dean had never really understood the idea of fireworks or butterflies or whatever you want to call it but he did now. The feeling of Hermione's lips on his, the fact that she was responding to his kiss, it was enough to completely fry his brain. He didn't think he'd be able to form a coherent sentence at the moment if his life depended on it.

Suddenly Dean heard a throat clearing and Hermione jerked back from him. He looked up and saw Harry standing in front of them with a less than friendly look on his face directed at Dean while holding a bottle of something out to Hermione. Shit. God job pissing off the hero of the magical world, Dean.

Hermione pulled away from Dean and took the liquid Harry had handed her. She downed it and pulled a face "God I hate those things." She muttered.

"Yeah well you know you're supposed to take one when your shakes begin. Pomfrey said so." Harry lectured. "Besides if you're planning on being the stubborn Hermione I've known since I was eleven, you need to take care of yourself while dealing with escaped death eaters."

"Um, Can someone maybe explain to me what the hell's going on? And should Sam maybe be here for this? So we both know what we're dealing with." Dean broke in.

"Yes of course. Dean call Sam and tell him to come over, it won't take long to walk from the hotel. I'll go make us all some tea while we wait." Hermione said.

"Perfect, I'd like to have a chat with Dean here." Harry said.

Shit.

"Be nice." Hermione said to him walking into the kitchen.

Dean turned and called Sam telling him to make his way to the house right away and to stop having a bitch fit about walking over.

"So. Dean. You and Hermione huh?" Harry said not overly happy.

"Um, yeah, if she'll have me I guess."

"She will. I know her too well, even if she won't admit it yet, she likes you."

Dean had to admit he felt elated when he heard this. She liked him back!

"However, she's been through a lot, if you do anything, anything at all that hurts her you're going to be on the receiving end of a hex to the bollocks and Ginny, my fiancé, will be right behind me with her infamous bat-bogey hex."

Dean didn't really know what that was but it sounded nasty and not like something he wanted to experience. Harry was pretty damn intimidating, even to someone like Dean, so he just gulped and nodded. Where the hell was Hermione, Dean didn't know how to deal with the threatening older brother type talks, he usually never met the family.

Finally, he heard a knock at the door and let out a breath he had been holding. Sam was finally here and they could get away from the topic of himself and Hermione.

Hermione and Sam came into the room after what felt like an eternity of Harry glaring daggers at him. Hermione just gave Dean a knowing look and a small smile while Sam full on grinned seeing Harry glaring at Dean and Dean looking extremely uncomfortable. Dean was sure Sam was loving every second of seeing Dean squirm under the 'older brother protective glare' he was getting.

"So, I suppose we should explain some things to you two if you guys are going to be around to help out." Hermione began handing each of them tea.

"Oh yeah, by the way Sammy I agreed to have us stay and help with the death eaters that may or may not be here." Dean announced

"Um, okay? Help how? I mean we aren't exactly much help against magic are we?" Sam said

"Well you guys do know about the supernatural right? You have experience with evil." Harry pointed out

"Right, well, what's going on then?" Sam relented.

Dean sat and tried to drink some tea but it just tasted like weird water to him. He pulled a face and set it down as Sam just laughed into his cup. Hermione and Harry took a few minutes to catch Sam up on the Azkaban prisoners that had escaped and were more than likely in the area.

"So what is it that's so bad about these guys in particular?" Sam asked, "I mean you guys seem pretty worried so I take it these weren't some low level flunkies."

"The Carrow's, Rowle, Lestrange, and Dolohov. They were in Voldemort's inner circle, among his most loyal followers. Hermione has a particular history with most of them. That's why we think that they're likely behind the attacks and likely to attack Hermione."

"History? What kind of history?" Dean asked "I recognize the name Lestrange… wasn't that the bitch that did that to your arm?"

"Rodolphus Lestrange, his wife Bellatrix was the one who did this yes." Hermione said gesturing to her arm. "He was one of Voldemort's top death eaters. Bellatrix and him loved to torture people and had absolutely no remorse."

"Thorfinn Rowle was one of the others. He participated in many of the battles but he's reckless, fires curses in all directions. He's likely the least dangerous." Harry told the brothers.

"The Carrow's are siblings, Alecto and Amycus, both were death eaters whom Voldemort appointed as Deputy Headmistress and Headmaster, as well as teachers and tortured students. They used curses, physical torture, chains, anything their twisted minds could think of. They're not the brightest but they're absolutely ruthless." Harry said.

Dean and Sam were still digesting this, they knew Hermione had fought in a war but not the full extent of it. Sam had read the book she gave him which gave him an idea but it still wasn't the same as hearing it from the source.

"There's still one more isn't there?" Dean said.

"Antonin Dolohov." Hermione said standing, and beginning to pace. Dean got the feeling there was something different about this one. Hermione looked more nervous about this Dolohov than any of the others.

"I wiped his memory along with Rowle's once, when they tracked us down. He's one of the first death eaters Voldemort had. In the Battle at the Ministry of Magic I silenced him but he still managed to do non-verbal spells." Hermione told them, she then turned and began to lift the bottom half of her shirt where the boys could see the beginnings of a scar that stretched from one hip across and up the abdomen and disappeared into her shirt that she hadn't lifted.

"He hit me with a curse after I silenced him, I don't know exactly what the curse was but I was severely injured. I took upwards of ten potions a day for months to heal the internal injuries from it, Dolohov also murdered a close friend of ours in the war. He's extremely powerful and possibly the most dangerous along with Rodolphus." Hermione told the two Winchesters that were currently sitting on her couch looking shell shocked.

Dean couldn't believe all the shit these people had done, it was one thing to deal with evil creatures but evil people he would never understand.

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So? There it was! Now this is the last chapter I have written so I'm going to aim to update once a week from here on out, and I'm always open to suggestions and ideas from you guys!

xx Rose


	8. Chapter 8

Okay Guys, I promise there will be some action soon! Every time I sit down to write a new chapter it just kind of takes on a life of its own, but next chapter will have more! 5,000 Views on this fic now! I can't believe it!

Thanks to everyone who keeps reviewing and reading, you guys have made my first attempt at a story an amazing experience :)

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Harry spent some time at Hermione's house catching up after dropping the huge bomb on them about the escaped death eaters.

"You look good Mione… leaving really was good for you." Harry said. "Even though we all wish you could be at home."

Harry truly meant what he said, even in the short time he had been here he could tell how much leaving had helped. Hermione wasn't all skin and bones any more, she looked healthy, and she even smiled more than she ever did in England. If Harry's gut was right she had finally found a man she really liked too, Ron wasn't around anymore to constantly interfere with that.

"Thanks Harry. I miss you guys, but getting away and living my own life is what I needed."

Hermione really was happy here. She knew that perhaps she hadn't left under the best circumstances, but to be honest, she hadn't been in the best mind space at the time either. She felt guilty having been gone for so long without going back to see Harry, or Ginny, or even the twins, she just hadn't been able to work up the nerve.

"We know. Ginny misses you, she'd love to come visit you when you'll have her. The twins ask after you a bunch as well."

"And Ron? Or Molly?" she asked quietly, dreading but already knowing the answer.

Harry sat in silence for a moment. Hermione knew he was trying to find a way to say it that wouldn't hurt so much.

"Ron's... well he's Ron. He misses you, he honestly thought you would eventually come around and get married to him, settle down… When he found out you were staying here permanently he kind of lost it. He's still adamant that you've abandoned us." Harry said

"Oh Harry…" Hermione sighed, she couldn't believe that Ron had been so delusional. Once the schoolgirl crush she had had on Ron had worn off, she had fully been able to see just how utterly wrong they were for each other.

"I know Hermione, we all knew it would never work out. All but Ron apparently." Harry said somewhat sadly "Molly on some level knew as well. She's just still angry that you'll never be a Weasley, hopefully she'll get over it soon."

"Right…" Hermione sighed. Her best friend and the woman who had become like a second mother to her were both likely out of her life forever and she couldn't decide how she felt about that.

Harry got up, and with one last glare in Dean's direction, announced he had best be getting back to England before Ginny started to worry. Hermione gave him a hug and watched as he disappeared into the green flames with a 'Potter Manor!'

Sam and Dean had been sitting just off to the side of the room discussing the case and just how they could help. Dean couldn't help but overhear Hermione and Harry discuss someone named Ron, and he definitely couldn't help the small flame of jealousy that flared up when he heard them discuss the fact that marriage had been expected for them.

God he really needed to read that book she had given them, all these things he kept hearing about would probably make more sense if he did. He could almost bet that Sam had a way easier time than he did following the conversations that were happening lately involving all the magic stuff.

Dean stood and told Hermione they were going to head back to the motel and discuss some things regarding what they were facing. He knew Sam and he needed to have a talk about what was happening, and the fact that Dean had committed them to help. Judging by the pissy looks Sam kept throwing his way it he wasn't thrilled about it.

"Come on Sasquatch, let's go." He announced standing to leave. They made their way to the door, Sam already on the porch when Dean turned to Hermione.

"I'll call you? We can figure out what to do about everything another time?" He said awkwardly.

"Yes of course." Hermione said walking him to the door.

Dean made it halfway across the porch before turning and jogging back to the door to kiss Hermione one more time before leaving.

Hermione stood and watched the impala leave her house, she couldn't help but wonder just what the hell she was doing falling for a hunter that logically she knew wouldn't be around for too long.

She went inside, made sure her wards surrounding her property and house were all intact before making her way to the "magic room" as she thought of it. If the death eaters really were here then she knew she should stop leaving all her belongings from her life in England in this room. It was time to face her past and allow herself to once again live as the witch she was.

She slowly turned and looked around the small room that housed every single item she had that pointed to her being magical. It was almost therapeutic in a way, to meld her two lives together. She had been hiding a part of herself for so long it felt amazing to stop. She could finally combine Hermione the amazing witch and one third of the golden trio, with Hermione the small town librarian wanting a quiet life.

After a few hours, her magical pictures were no longer stuffed into a corner but proudly displayed all over her house, her wand was now going to be carried with Hermione at all times, and her magical books were no longer hidden away. Her room that once housed every magical item was now solely there as her potions room. She looked around her house after she was done melding her two worlds and felt at peace.

Hermione had always felt the need to be prepared and stay one step ahead of everyone else, she was finally allowing herself to do that again. She made potions in preparation of having to battle the death eaters, healing potions, an antidote to common poisons, blood replenishers and so on.

She even decided to try and make some protection charms for herself and the brothers. Using objects she had around, she cast some charms on them that she hoped would help to protect against dark magic.

Finally, feeling utterly exhausted yet happy at the way the day had gone, she let herself fall into bed and think about how even after leaving, the wizarding world had followed her here, to small town Virginia. Now, she knew, she would never be able to fully escape and have the normal muggle life she had wanted back after the final battle.

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Sam and Dean went back to the hotel both lost in their own thoughts. Dean couldn't help but think about this Ron person, and how little he still knew about Hermione's world.

Sam was focused on the idea that they were now involved in a potentially very dangerous situation with wizards. So much for law school and settling down. Mirroring Hermione's thoughts, he was slowly realizing he would never get the apple pie life he craved.

"Sam, where's that book Hermione gave us?" Dean asked once they reached their room.

Sam stared at him for a minute from his position on the dilapidated bed, "Dude, are you actually going to read? Like, willingly? An actual book?"

"Shut up, Just gimme the damn thing." Dena grumped dropping onto the other bed.

Sam wordlessly handed him the book he dug out, lost in his own head. He knew his brother had finally found a girl he liked and he was happy for him, but Sam couldn't help but worry about the fact that they were more than likely in over their heads. They didn't know how to deal with magic, they didn't know how to defend themselves against these death eaters, and weren't they supposed to be looking for dad?

"What about Dad? I mean, I thought we were supposed to be trying to find him." Sam said voicing his concerns.

"Sammy, I think it's time we face it. He doesn't want to be found, okay." Dean said tiredly, he had known this would be coming, he had been hoping to avoid it a little longer though.

"I think we just need to start working jobs until he's ready to be found. We both know that as long as he doesn't want us to find him we won't. He's too good at covering his tracks."

"Dean, Dad is the entire reason I left Stanford. Jess is dead, and finding dad is why I'm here, it's why I agreed to leave with you." Sam said getting upset, why was he even back on the road with his brother if not to find their father and the thing that killed him mom and Jess?

"Sam. Drop it! Okay? We aren't going to find him! We have a job here let's just focus on that." Dean finally lost his temper.

"No! You agreed to have both of us stay on a job that we should have nothing to do with! This is not our world, this is hers and you know it! You just agreed to stay so that you can try and get into her bed!" Sam raged, he huffed and tried to catch his breath, pacing the length of their tiny room.

He couldn't believe Dean was going to give up on dad, all for some cute witch he had just met. Dean may have been a womanizer but he had always put his family first, until now.

"I need to go, I'll be back in a while." Sam announced shaking his head as he headed for the door.

"Dude, you can't go wander around with a bunch of crazy magic people wandering around." Dean said trying to convince Sam it was a bad idea.

"Going anyways." Sam said before leaving the hotel room slamming the door behind him, not giving Dean a chance to respond.

Dean laid down, and grabbed the book Sam had given him before their argument and started to read. Who did Sam think he was? They had a job to do and Dad didn't want to be found. Why couldn't he just focus on the job they were on now?

Sam left their hotel room, pulling his jacket up around him against the cool night air, but really didn't have an idea of where to go. He walked to the end of the parking lot, looked left and right, and tried to decide which way. Finally he turned and walked left, the way he knew a little café was, maybe he could sit and calm down there.

Sam was so frustrated, he had given up his dream of law school and a normal life because his dad was missing. His dad who didn't even seem to like him that much, who he hadn't talked to in years. His father who had destroyed any chance that they had at normal childhoods and a normal life.

He gave up everything he had built to go find this man who he really didn't even like that much. Loved sure, but not liked, and now Dean wanted him to just give up? Sam was lost in his own head, not really paying attention to much as he wandered up to the café.

Sam couldn't pretend his dad wasn't missing, he couldn't pretend like he wanted to just hunt random cases and not look for John. Sure, Hermione seemed like a nice girl, but she also seemed to be capable of taking care of herself and already had a support system.

Did she really need them? Or was he just being selfish?

Before he knew it he was at the café and went inside, ordering a coffee and sitting there just dwelling on everything. His mood must have shown on his face because the staff for the most part just left him alone.

Sam had been sitting in the café for some time before a stranger came and sat across from him. He looked up and saw a middle aged man, shaggy black hair, and most disturbingly, dead eyes.

Sam was about to ask him what the hell he was doing when he noticed the wooden stick the man held. Just like Hermione's.

Fuck.

"You're one of them, aren't you?" Sam asked resignedly. Dean was right, it wasn't safe out here by himself against magic, sure normally he'd be fine, but he had no defense against this.

"Hello Sam, isn't it? My names Rodolphus." The man's faced turned into an evil looking grin, "And you're going to help me get to Miss Granger."

Before Sam could object, he saw the man wave his wand around and he heard what he was pretty sure sounded like an "Imperio".

Suddenly, Sam felt light and calm. It was like he had absolutely no worries whatsoever, but he could hear a voice in his head telling him things. That was weird.

Sam got up and left the café under Rodolphus' control, the man grabbed his hand and suddenly he felt his body being unpleasantly squished, before falling to the floor in an old building.

"Boys," Sam heard the man say "I brought us something we can use. Finally, got one of them on their own."

Four other people came out from the shadows with matching evil grins, all wearing what looked like cloaks? Capes? Either way it was weird.

"Lestrange, well done. Now, what exactly are we going to use him for?" A dark man stepped towards Sam, inspecting him.

It was the strangest feeling, almost like he was watching someone else in his body and he couldn't do a thing about it. Sam could feel his brain very dimly telling him that this wasn't right, he shouldn't be here, but as soon as it began the thought was squished by the control Rodolphus had over him.


	9. Chapter 9

Okay Guys, we're finally getting to the meat of the story, Some of the questions I've gotten will be answered in the next few chapters. I'm surprised more people didn't catch the whole mind control demon blood from yellow eyes contrast.

As always, if you guys are still liking the story or if there's anything you're not loving let me know! Reviews are what keep me going.

 **Sakura Lisel - Thanks for your review, I was wondering if anyone was going to catch that. I do have a plan regarding that aspect so keep reading!**

* * *

Dean woke up the next morning after having fallen asleep trying to get through Hogwarts A history and noticed Sam passed out, still fully dressed, on the other bed. He hadn't even heard Sam come back last night, so he had no idea what level of bitch fit he should be expecting today.

He groaned and looked at the clock on the table. Goddammit! It was already 9 am and they hadn't done a damn thing.

He got up and started to get ready for the day ahead. He checked to make sure all the guns were clean, they were stocked up on knives, and cleaned himself up.

Through all this Sam hadn't moved a muscle and was still snoring away, face down on the other bed. Dean threw a pillow at him and yelled at him to get up. When Sam still didn't move Dean went and set the alarm for 5 minutes from now and turned it up.

Loud.

He was brushing his teeth when Hot Blooded began to blare out of the clock in their little motel room. Dean loudly sang along while he listened to Sam groan and slowly get up.

"Really, Dean? Is this necessary?" Sam said as he tried to figure out how to turn off the music.

Dean shrugged, "You wouldn't wake up, and we're burning daylight!"

Sam just sat back down on the bed and glared at him.

"C'mon Sammy, Let's just get through this case, okay?" Dean pleaded.

Sam sighed, "Fine."

The brothers grabbed their weapons, coats, and headed out

* * *

Hermione was at the library early that morning, even before Rachel and Adam for once, in order to subtly set up some wards around the place. She wasn't only worried about her own protection but she also wouldn't forgive herself if anything happened to her friends here.

She had brought the death eaters here and she would be damned if she let them kill again because of her.

"Hermione! What're you doing here so early?"

Rachel had finally made her way into the library, which she would normally have to herself for a while before Adam showed up.

"Well, I was hoping to ask you if I could get a few days off. Some people from England have come over to visit unexpectedly." Hermione lied.

"Sure thing! You could use some time off, unwind a little, and have some fun." Rachel smiled at her.

A few hours later, the three library workers were all sitting at the main desk bored out of their minds.

"So, Mione. Dish! What's it been like working with the two FBI hotties?" Adam wanted to know. As always, when he was bored he looked to gossip to entertain him.

"I think the shorter one has a thing for you ya know." Rachel chimed in.

Hermione just laughed at them both and avoided the question. She didn't know why but she wanted to keep it to herself, at least for now, what was happening.

"Speaking of…" Rachel trailed off nodding to the doors where Dean was coming in.

"Hey Rach, Mind if I start those couple days of right now?" Hermione asked, gathering her things.

"Of course not, go!" she got in response along with a laugh and an 'I knew it!' came from Adam.

Hermione rose and grabbed Dean's arm pulling him out of the library with her.

"C'mon let's get out of here. We need to talk." Hermione said to Sam who had been trailing behind on his way into the library.

Hermione opened the door to the impala climbing in back and impatiently waited for the brothers to follow.

"We should go to the woods, where the bodies were found." She said once they finally got in the car with her.

Sam and Dean just shared at look before following her instructions and heading for the woods.

Once the trio made their way out to the forest, the boys went to the trunk and loaded up with any weapons they thought they might need.

"Will our weapons even work on these guys?" Dean thought out loud.

"Of course, Wizards are still human beings you know." Hermione said not overly impressed that he still didn't consider her people to be, well, people.

"Right, Sorry." He said sheepishly. Old habits were proving harder to break than he expected.

Sam and Dean both stopped what they were doing and watched in mild fascination as Hermione stuck her entire arm into a purple beaded bag that in no way should have gone that deep. She finally pulled out two necklaces and handed one to each brother.

"They're protection charms, they should help to protect you two against magic." She announced proudly, "Put them on!"

Dean and Sam inspected them for a moment before Dean put his on while Sam, for some reason he couldn't figure out, waited until the other two weren't looking and shoved it in his pocket listening to a little voice in his head.

"So, What exactly are we doing out here?" Sam asked Hermione,

"Well, I figured since this is where the two girls were found then maybe there's something here to help us. We know more about what we're looking for now so maybe we'll see things differently."

The three of them spent the next hour combing through the property and the old manor.

Hermione didn't know why but she had been getting an uneasy feeling around Sam all day, maybe he was angry with her, she wouldn't be surprised.

When they went into the old Beaufort Manor, she announced that they should each take a different floor. Sam upstairs, her on the main floor, and Dean in the basement.

The three split up, Hermione heading through the various rooms on the main floor looking for anything out of place. Hermione found a few indications that the death eaters had been here but the dust levels were telling her it likely hadn't been for some time. They had moved on already and the trio were at a dead end again.

They met up out front and began to plan out their next moves.

"Well, what else do we know about the girls? What about where they worked?" Dean said.

They got back into the impala and headed to the apothecary, Hermione taking the lead since she had spent a decent amount of time there in the past.

Aside from a few ingredients Hermione needed for her potions they left with nothing new, which was beginning to frustrate Dean to no end.

By this point it was nearing lunch time and Dean was whining about being starved to death so they decided to head to the diner, if for nothing else than to shut Dean up with some food.

* * *

Dean sat and wolfed down the burger and fries he had gotten while Sam just sat and stared into space and Hermione tried to sort through the case in her head.

"Joanna worked at the bar right? Have you guys been by there at all yet? If not we should check it out." She asked them.

Dean said what Hermione deciphered as a 'not yet' around his mouthful of burger while Sam continued to be absent from conversation. All those years deciphering what Ron was saying in the great hall were paying off, she thought to herself.

"Dude, what's wrong with you today? You've been a space cadet all damn day." Dean finally asked staring at Sam.

Sam snapped back to the conversation.

"I don't know man, Just been feeling a little off all day. Think I might just head back to the room and get some rest." Sam announced rising and heading for the door.

"Weird." Dean commented watching him leave before shrugging and going back to his food.

Something about the way Sam was acting made Hermione feel on edge and nervous. He wasn't acting like he had been the last few days he had been around, he was distant and distracted.

"Come by the house later and we can go see if maybe anyone at the bar noticed any of the death eaters hanging around Joanna." Hermione said.

She too got up and headed out into the cool fall air, making her way home to prepare for another round of hunting death eaters.

Sam had left the diner and began his walk to the motel. He had been ignoring this strange foggy feeling all day but it was getting stronger and stronger, it was giving him a splitting headache by this point. Something felt off but he just couldn't figure it out, last night he had left for the café and then a few hours later went back to the motel. Right?

Sam was suddenly unsure and doubting his own memory, but why?

The fog in his head kept growing and before he knew it Sam felt himself get pushed to the back of his own mind and something else take over.

He watched from inside his own head as he headed down the street and right past the motel, continuing on until he reached an almost abandoned section of the road.

A man in a dark cloak appeared and grabbed his arm, before he knew it he was experiencing a strange and unpleasant squeezing feeling and then he was on his knees in an abandoned building he vaguely recognized.

"Antonin! The boy is here." The man in the cloak announced.

"Ah, excellent. Now Sam, tell me, what did you and Miss Granger get up to today."

Sam could feel himself begin to talk, explaining his day with Hermione and his brother. It was a weird feeling, not being in control of his own body, and yet feeling completely at ease with it. Somewhere in his mind he knew this wasn't right, but he couldn't bring himself to care enough to fight it off either.

"They're going to the bar in town tonight, to try and get more information." He heard himself say. Why was he telling them all this? He was going to get his brother and Hermione, who had been nothing but nice to him, killed.

"Perfect." Antonin said as a smirk made its way onto his face.

"Boys! How about a little night on the town, have a little fun in a muggle bar?' he said with a low laugh.

Sam felt a pit of dread settle in his stomach, what had he just done?

The first man who had brought him to this place grabbed his arm again and next thing Sam knew he was on the road back to the motel.

His mind felt a little foggy again, but he didn't know why, what was going on? Why had the day gotten suddenly darker? He kept losing chunks of time and it was starting to freak him out.

Sam had just settled into bed in the room when Dean came in.

"Sammy! Gonna come to the bar tonight? Maybe find some evil bastards?"

"Nah, I'm just gonna try and rest here. My head still feels off and I've got a headache from hell, it's weird." He said, face scrunched up in confusion.

"Suit yourself" he heard as Dean laid down on the other bed. Within minutes Sam was snoring and dreaming about a weird abandoned building and men in cloaks.

* * *

Dean made his way up to the door of Hermione's house right on time.

Dean couldn't help but admire Hermione as she opened the door. She had an awesome figure, he couldn't help but notice, long wavy hair, and a face that was unfairly attractive.

Without so much as a hello, he gave her a kiss. He had meant for it to be a short sweet kiss, but it turned into a toe curling, Hermione pushed up against the door gripping his leather jacket kiss.

He pulled back and they both tried to catch their breath.

"Hello to you too." Hermione said with a grin.

"Ready to go?" Dean asked turning so they could head to his car.

Pull your head together Dean, You're going out to do a job, you're not on a date. Focus.

"So, when we get there maybe I can try talking to people? I've been living here longer, they might tell me more." Hermione began once they got into the car, forcing Dean out of his thoughts about her.

He just grunted in agreement and Hermione let the sounds of 80's rock wash over her. She had always had a soft spot for this kind of music, reminding her of her dad and their time together, before her world had changed when she turned eleven.

Before they knew it, they were in front of the bar. Hermione took a deep breath trying to calm her nerves about maybe facing the men who she had fought against for years once again.

Dean tried texting Sam to see if he was doing alright, it wasn't like him to bail on a case, but got no response before heading in.

Nobody remembered seeing anyone unusual, no one seemed to remember much at all actually. Hermione and Dean sat at their table each drinking their beer feeling slightly let down by the lack of information.

They decided to spend the next while just talking, finding out more about each other. The fact that Dean was only a year older, hunting because of his mom, his dad being missing. Dean couldn't believe he was willing to tell her all this.

A couple hours later the bar had filled up considerably, Hermione and Dean had given up on getting any more information and were just enjoying their time together, flirting and laughing, when he noticed Hermione suddenly freeze.

"What's going on?' he said looking around.

Hermione couldn't be sure but she could have sworn she had seen one of them, a death eater, in the crowd.

"I think they're here." She hissed, grabbing her wand in her bag.

Dean cursed and grabbed his gun and tried to look around without being too obvious. Hermione grabbed him and pulled him through the crowd, out a back door into the alley behind the bar.

They burst out the back door into an extremely dark and grungy alley. Hermione had a tight grip on her wand, feeling more than a little nervous after not having used much magic for so long.

"Well well, Miss Granger." Dean heard a man say from their right, "It's been awhile I must say. I preferred watching you scream and squirm on the ballroom floor as my wife gave you that lovely scar."

Hermione went white as a ghost and froze, Dean grabbed her hand and hissed a 'snap out of it!' at her. He knew she was the only one who would be a real match for the wizards and it would be a massive shit storm if she froze up on him.

"What happened? You just abandoned the world that welcomed you and your dirty blood, just decided to go back to being a filthy muggle? Couldn't cut it when faced with real wizards?" another voice taunted her, emphasizing the fact that she wasn't a 'real' witch to them.

"Rodolphus. Where's the rest of the crowd? Surely you weren't brave enough to come only the two of you." She spat back at them, his comments had only served to anger her further.

Rodolphus cackled and made his way to where Hermione and Dean could see him.

"Oh no, my dear, I'm not alone. In fact, a friend of yours is with me." He grinned as Sam walked out from the shadows to stand beside him.

"Sam!" Dean yelled taking a step towards them, ready to beat the shit out of anyone that had dared to hurt his family.

"Dean, No!" Hermione yelled grabbing him "He's not here with them, at least not of his own free will, I can guarantee it."

"Well, you really are the brightest witch of your age aren't you? No, Dearest Sam here, is fully under my control. Take another step towards us you muggle filth and I'll have him kill himself." Rodolphus drawled out in a bored tone to Dean who was having a hard time not charging at them.

"Well, enough chit chat, how about we get on with it?"

Dean struggled with himself but managed to stay put as Rodolphus and Sam disappeared into the background and four others made their way out to where Hermione and Dean were able to see them.


	10. Chapter 10

Holy! I have to admit this chapter kind of took on a life of its own and so its way longer than I planned and way longer than the others. Enjoy!

* * *

Before Dean even managed to register what was happening he felt Hermione shove him behind the dumpster as cover from the barrage of spells that were suddenly coming their way.

Dean watched Hermione draw her wand and begin to fight back against what seemed like unbelievable odds, at least to him. He was in awe of the way she managed to almost dance around the jets of light being fired at her. She looked like a true seasoned warrior and he realised he didn't have to worry about her.

Hermione shouted a "Protego" and he watched a few spells ricochet off the invisible shield.

Hermione suddenly dove in behind the dumpster beside him and began firing off spells to attack rather than defend. At least behind the cover of the dumpster she didn't have to be purely defense oriented.

He peeked around the corner and began to take aim with the gun he had brought with him. The death eaters clearly hadn't been expecting any muggle weapons as he managed to get one good shot at the woman before the rest realised what was happening.

Hermione leaned around the other side of the dumpster yelling out words like Confringo! Expelliarmus! Expulso! And Stupefy! Before ducking back behind the dumpster while the death eaters took their shots.

Hermione and Dean were beginning to worry that the dumpster they had taken cover behind would last much longer, not to mention how exhausted they were.

After what felt like hours, the death eaters must have figured out they weren't going to win this one, the jets of light stopped coming and Dean once again peeked out from around the dumpster. With a couple loud cracks two of them disappeared, Dean was getting really tired of the advantage this this magic bullshit gave them.

Dean stood and walked out from behind his hiding spot and surveyed the alley. Hermione's barrage of spells had done some damage, there was debris all over the alley as well as scorch marks, it looked like hardly anything in that alley had escaped unharmed.

The dumpster they had been hiding behind was a shell of what it was, it had been hit with so many spells and lit on fire, Dean guessed Hermione must have put some sort of protection around it otherwise it probably wouldn't have lasted as long as it had.

Dean saw two of the cloaked guys tied up together stunned and a woman who had been hit with some flying debris from Hermione's Expulso spell was lying unconscious not far away. Dean noticed the shot he had fired had hit her in the leg and he felt a sense of satisfaction that at least he hadn't been entirely useless.

Hermione quickly fired an "Incarceous!" in the unconscious woman's direction and she was quickly tied up in ropes as well. It hadn't been all that long of a fight but Dean and Hermione were both exhausted.

Breathing heavily Hermione turned to Dean and told him to bring the Impala around from the front. Dean was unsure about leaving her with three death eaters but they didn't really have much other choice. He ran out from the alley to get his car from the front of the bar.

Once he got the car to where Hermione was waiting she levitated the three people into the impala, getting in and telling Dean to go to her house. Hermione keeping an eye on their three captured death eaters while Dean tried to figure out what they could do about Sam.

* * *

Once at her house, Hermione made sure the three death eaters wouldn't be able to escape and went to her fireplace. She called Harry and told him to 'get over here now! And bring another auror with you!"

Harry, worried after receiving that kind of a message from Hermione, rushed through the fireplace with the first auror he could find, who just happened to be a short tempered red head that had been at his house for a visit.

"Mione! What happened?" Harry asked as soon as he saw her. Ron stepping out of the fireplace behind him looking annoyed at being pulled away from food. It was five hours ahead in England it had been right in the middle of breakfast that Hermione had pulled them away.

"Dean and I were at the bar in town when I saw Rowle's face in the crowd. We went out back and were attacked, I managed to capture three of them. Thought you might wanna take them back to England." She said exhaustedly.

The four of them gathered around the unconscious death eaters, Ron shooting murderous looks at Dean, while Hermione gave dirty looks to Harry for bringing Ron of all people to her new home.

"So... Who did you get?" Ron asked in an attempt to ignore his jealousy at seeing Dean in Hermione's home.

"Rowle, Alecto Carrow, and Amycus Carrow." Hermione stated. "Rodolphus and Dolohov were there but they got away, and I'm fairly certain they have Sam, Dean's brother, under the Imperius."

"Shit…" Dean heard Harry mutter. He began levitating the three unconscious figures over to the fireplace sending them, along with a note, to the ministry to be dealt with.

"Did you get hurt?" Harry asked. He grabbed her arms and turned her in circles inspecting her. Frowning when he saw the gash on her arm.

"Harry I'm fine, but I have a feeling Ron and Dean may not be pretty soon if we don't intervene." She said gesturing to the two men having what seemed to be an epic battle of dirty looks.

Ron was turning a lovely shade of purple while Dean just gave him disgusted looks from his place on Hermione's couch.

"Ron, Dean! Stop it!" Hermione finally had enough of the glares.

"So, is this your boyfriend? Why you refused to come home and be with me? Decided to stay in this place and play muggle with him?" Ron asked angrily, gesturing at Dean and her home wildly.

"Who Dean is is none of your bloody business! You stopped talking to me, alright! I left and you couldn't handle it. You don't get to walk back in to my home and demand answers." She snapped.

Ron just scoffed, and muttered to himself as he turned and walked to the fireplace, going to the ministry to deal with the newly recaptured escapees.

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief when he had given up so easily.

"Can we get back to the whole Sam is a walking talking puppet thing now?" Dean demanded. "What the hell is happening to him?"

"He's under the Imperius curse, its mind control." Hermione said.

"If you guys can get to the wizard that put him under it, you can break it." Harry told Dean.

"Great, let's go get those freaky fuckers." Dean said heading for the door.

"Dean! Wait!" Hermione yelled at him

"Why? Those psycho freaks have Sam!"

"I know you want to get Sam back but we can't go in half cocked! We'll just end up with all three of us dead." She tried to reason with him.

"Dean… She's right, believe me. You wouldn't believe the amount of times she tried to tell me the same, and I wish I had listened." Harry told him.

Dean rubbed a hand over his face and sat back down, "Fine! Then what do we do now?"

Logically, he knew it wasn't Hermione's fault but he couldn't help but blame witches for his brother being with the enemy. He had never felt so out of his depth and helpless.

"You guys stay here, Hermione has some powerful wards around this place to keep you guys safe. I'm going to go back to the ministry. See if we can get some information from those three about where they were staying, where Sam might be. As soon as we get anything I'll be back." Harry told them.

"So I'm supposed to just sit around and what? Twiddle my thumbs while they do god knows what to my brother?!" Dean exploded.

"I'm sorry Dean, it's the only option right now." Harry told him "If it comes down to it, I'm telling Hermione to Stupefy you or whatever she has to do to keep you here. We don't want any more deaths around here."

Harry went to the fireplace and gave Hermione a hug before heading to the Ministry.

Hermione grabbed some potions from her storage, she had been hit on her arm with some sort of jinx she needed to heal. She then headed to Dean to make sure he didn't have any injuries he hadn't mentioned.

"Are you hurt?" She asked him quietly, unsure of what to expect from him at the moment.

"No." he gruffly replied walking away from her.

She knew he was probably blaming her for magic and her brother, but she also hoped he would get over it. She had thought they were actually starting to develop something great, she knew she really liked him and the fact that she didn't have to hide who she was.

Hermione just turned and went to her room to change. She had a feeling it might be a while before Harry was back with any information and Dean was clearly in no mood to talk to her.

Hermione walked back into the sitting room and threw some bedding at Dean, telling him he could sleep on the couch if he wanted before turning and locking herself into her room.

She cast a Caterwauling Charm so that she would hear if Dean tried to go anywhere, as well as a Colloportus on the doors of the house to prevent anyone from going in or out, wouldn't do to have another missing Winchester.

Dean's mind was running crazy, he couldn't help but let his thoughts wander to the fact that magic was the reason they were in this mess.

The longer he sat there the angrier he got, with himself, with Hermione, with everything.

He knew Hermione had likely done some sort of magical mumbo jumbo to make sure he didn't leave without telling her so he finally relented and laid down on her couch.

He let his thoughts wander to the way their night had begun, if he was honest with himself that was as close to a date as he was likely to get. They had spent hours sitting and talking, laughing, having fun. That wasn't something Dean did with a girl very often, and each time he had kissed her he couldn't even explain the feeling he got.

Hermione was someone he could've seen himself actually being with, she wasn't the typical girl he would pick up in the bars but that was a good thing. Dean knew he did feel something for her, but he was having a hard time getting past the magic aspect and now Sam was in trouble thanks to her.

Dean was so tempted to go knock on her bedroom door and apologize for being such a dick to her, but instead he stayed where he was. It wasn't long before the exhaustion from all the excitement of the day got to him and he passed out.

It felt like mere seconds since he had fallen asleep but he knew in reality it had been longer when the fireplace in Hermione's house turned green and flared up. Looking bedraggled and stressed out, Harry walked into the house which was suddenly filled with a high pitched shrieking noise.

"What the fuck!" Dean shouted sitting bolt upright, slamming his hands over his ears.

Hermione came running into the room and once she realised it had been Harry and not Dean that set off the shrieking noise, she removed the charm from the house.

"Harry? What did you find out?" she demanded.

"Rowle finally broke, he told us the location they've been holed up in for the last couple days."

Dean was up off the couch, gun in hand, in seconds.

"Where? Where is my brother?"

"It's an abandoned building just outside of town, apparently it used to be an old factory of some sort. Hermione, do you know of it?"

"Yes, of course."

"Great, let's get a move on then." Dean said heading for the door.

"Dean, wait! I know you don't like me much right now but I need you to take my hand and trust me." Hermione said holding her hand out to him.

Dean on his part just looked at her confused and angry.

"Look, we can waste time by driving across town to get there or you can trust me, take my hand, and we'll be there in seconds." She told him.

"Fine! Let's just do this already." Dean said, not overly enthusiastic about relying on magic again but willing to do anything to get his brother back.

* * *

Dolohov and Lestrange had popped back to the abandoned building with Sam in tow. They had hoped by showing Granger and the other guy that Sam was under their control it would throw them off just enough to make it an easier battle.

"Well that was a bloody disaster!" Dolohov yelled. "Why didn't we take into account that its Hermione bloody Granger and a hunter?! The others are probably thrown back in Azkaban already."

Sam, after watching the fight between his brother and the death eaters, was finally starting to feel the fog in his brain lift just a little, he could almost form a complete thought on his own without it being stamped out by Lestrange.

There was another voice, a third one, which seemed just as angry as Sam that someone had been able to take control of his mind. Sam didn't know where that voice was coming from but he got an uneasy feeling from it.

"We've got to catch Granger off guard, that's the only way we'll ever get her." Dolohov said, mainly to himself.

Dolohov turned and grabbed Sam, once again demanded him to share every detail he knew about Hermione. Sam felt a smidgeon of pride in the fact that even though he did tell them a lot he managed to hold a few things back, it was progress.

Dolohov and Lestrange were ignoring him and planning out their next move when Sam was convinced he had heard some sort noise outside the building, almost like Dean yelling. That was the first noise he'd heard around this building the entire time he'd been here.

* * *

"Holy mother of shit! What the fuck was that!?" Dean said falling to his hands and knees in a field. He felt like he was about to puke his guts out.

"Apparition. It's a way of magically travelling instantly. And be quiet, they might hear us!" Hermione informed him in a whisper.

Hermione and Harry were both standing above him, wands out, waiting for him to get his bearings before forming a plan.

"They don't expect anyone to know about this place so it shouldn't be too hard to catch them off guard." Harry said scouting out the area from where they stood.

"Dean, you and Harry can go to the other side of the building. There's a bunch of windows, find a way in. I'll send up red sparks when I'm in position on this side, you do the same, then we can silently make our way inside before attacking them from both directions." Hermione told them before silently walking to her side of the building not giving them a chance to respond.

As soon as she got to what she deemed the best entrance into the building she put up an anti-apparition ward to keep them from escaping, and silently hoped Dean and Harry would be okay together.

She sent up her signal of red sparks and waited until she saw the boys' signal in return before sneaking into the building.

Hermione took a moment to look around and adjust to the dim lighting before moving into position. She saw Sam kneeling on the ground, while Dolohov and Lestrange stood not far away plotting another way to get to Hermione.

Harry and Dean she could see were on the other side of the building, she waved at them. It was time to take the death eaters by surprise.

From where they had been waiting, Dean and Harry saw Hermione's signal and began to advance.

They watched as Hermione got close to the men, right behind where Sam was still kneeling and they made their way up to the other side of the Death Eaters.

The two men were almost there and had remained unnoticed until Dean, who had been busy trying to watch Sam and make sure he wasn't hurt, knocked over a bit of old debris causing a loud clattering noise to ring out through the building.

Instantly, the two death eaters were up with wands out.

"Granger? Is that you? Come to finish what was started?" Dolohov yelled out crouched low and circling "I'd love to finish what I started in the Ministry with you."

Suddenly he whirled around and sent a stunner in Harry and Dean's direction catching Dean in the shoulder with it. Dean went down, ending up leaning against a crate in such a way that he could only see half of what was going on.

"Potter! What a fantastic surprise!" Lestrange said advancing at them, "You should've died years ago, I'd love to be the one to finally finish the job."

Harry dove out of the way as two jets of green light came his way, he was aware that Hermione was taking advantage of the distraction to sneak up behind the men. Hopefully, he would be able to occupy them long enough for her to do whatever she had planned.

Hermione was standing behind the men wand ready when Dolohov suddenly whirled around and caught her with a Crucio. She went down in a heap and couldn't help the scream that came from her throat. She hadn't experienced this feeling since that night in Malfoy Manor, she couldn't help the spasms her body went through or the agonizing screams tearing at her throat.

Sam and Dean were both cringing at the sheer amount of pain that Hermione's scream told them she was in. Dean may have been mad at her but he still didn't want her to be hurt.

Dean watched and tried in vain to get his gun, wanting nothing more than to shoot the man doing this.

Sam sat still kneeling battling against the control Lestrange had on him, he knew he was close to breaking it but he wasn't there yet. The third voice was cheering him on in its sleazy oily voice, but Sam got such a bad feeling from it he wasn't sure if it should be trusted.

He hated himself for just sitting there while Hermione cried out in pain and Dean sat there under a spell, motionless, a target.

Finally, he noticed he was able to move under his own control, his brain suddenly felt the fog lift and he fell over from the sheer exhaustion of fighting off the wizard's control.

Dolohov finally released his Crucio to focus more on the spells flying all over the abandoned building.

The pain finally ended for Hermione, she grit her teeth as she rolled trying to get up and catch her breath. Every part of her body ached but she knew this wasn't the time to focus on her own pain, she needed to get the two death eaters.

Harry had begun firing his own spells at Dolohov and Lestrange, who were proving to be far more difficult than any two men had a right to be.

She finally got a hold of herself and managed to hit Lestrange with a Petrificus Totalus from her position on the ground when there was an opening, followed by a Stupefy for good measure.

Harry took advantage of Dolohov's momentary loss of focus to move forward and fire a few more curses in his direction.

Hermione finally got up and made her way over to Dean, with an "enervate!" he was able to move once again. He pushed himself towards where his gun had fallen and gripped it, aiming it at Lestrange.

"Dean no! Look at Sam, he's fine. Besides, Lestrange will likely be sentenced to a dementor's kiss and spend the rest of his days without a soul as a shell of a person in prison reliving the worst memories he has." Hermione pleaded.

Dean just growled and stood, making his way to where Sam was. He had to dodge a few stray curses from Harry and Dolohov who were still dueling not far away. He grabbed Sam's arms off the ground where he was laying and pulled him behind some cover to keep him safe.

"Dean, we have to help them." Sam said trying to watch the battle in front of him.

"No, just let them deal with their own. You've already been caught up in this enough and you're in no shape to be fighting right now."

"Dean… Are you serious?" Sam looked like he was ready to run right back into the middle of things.

Dean hated to admit it but he was way out of his depth here and knew he'd be better off just making sure the one guy they already had tied up didn't escape.

"We can't… we'd just be in the way more than anything else."

Sam sighed and sat down beside Dean, Dean was practically vibrating in anger while Sam was just too exhausted to do anything.

Hermione joined the duel against Dolohov and with two thirds of the golden trio against him it wasn't long before Dolohov fell. Harry hit him with an expelliarmus and Hermione added a stupefy and an incarcerous.

Breathless and tired from dueling, the duo levitated the remaining two death eaters together and added another layer of ropes around the two.

"You guys can come out now. It's over."


	11. Chapter 11

**A Month Later**

Hermione had just gotten home from yet another day at the library. She used to love living in this town, having a normal job, now she just felt bored and restless.

She blamed the Winchesters for that.

Not long after she got home from work, Hermione's fireplace roared to life and turned green. Hermione suddenly longed for the day when she hadn't been connected and no one could just show up unannounced.

Harry walked out of her fireplace into her sitting room, as he had almost every night since the whole Winchester Fiasco.

"Hey, Mione. How are you doing?" Harry had been worried about her ever since the ordeal with the death eaters.

"I'm still fine Harry." Hermione said rolling her eyes.

"Right, well, I'm actually here to see if you can you come back to England with me. Just for a little bit, not permanently don't worry. There's someone who wants a meeting with you." Harry asked nervously.

"Meeting? Who wants a meeting?"

"Just trust me, you want to do this." Harry said with an odd grin.

Hermione couldn't believe she was even considering going back to England, but if Harry was willing to come over here on this person's behalf, maybe she should consider it.

She nodded.

Harry grabbed her hand and pulled her into the fireplace with him yelling "Ministry of Magic, London, England!" before she had even finished nodding her head in agreement to this mystery meeting.

They were off whizzing past a bunch of other fireplaces, none could be clearly made out however, as they were travelling too fast.

Eventually the duo emerged from one of the giant gold colored fireplaces in the Atrium of the Ministry.

Hermione felt suddenly nervous, this was the first time since the war that Hermione had been back in England, let alone in the Ministry.

"Harry? Why does someone at the Ministry want to meet with me?"

Harry just smiled at her, "You'll see."

He led her to the elevators, and she noticed along the way all the stares she was getting. She supposed it had been some time since anyone in the wizarding world had seen her.

In the elevator, Harry and Hermione each grabbed a hold of a handle while the elevator jerked backwards before going straight down. Harry seemed to be getting more and more excited each time a new floor was announced.

Hermione listened as the voice announced each floor they reached, 'Level 7 Department of Magical Games and Sports, Level 6 Department of Magical Transport, Level 5 Department of International Magical Cooperation'

The deeper they went into the Ministry the more nervous Hermione got, was she in trouble? Did she do something illegal? Were they mad about her using magic in front of the Winchesters?

She really wished Harry had at least given her a chance to change from her muggle work attire into something that would have been slightly more appropriate for a meeting at the ministry. She shot Harry a glare for this as they continued on their trip in the elevator.

'Level 4 Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, Level 3 Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, Level 2 Department of Magical Law Enforcement.'

Wait a minute, Level 2 and they still weren't getting off the elevator which only left one more floor, one more office was left, but she couldn't believe that they would want a meeting with her. Not after she had left the magical world so abruptly and hadn't returned since.

'Level 1 Office for the Minister of Magic.' The voice announced proudly. Harry grabbed her elbow and pulled her off the elevator.

Hermione numbly followed behind Harry as he walked up to the main desk, "Hullo Marie, Hermione Granger here to see the Minister, Please."

The woman behind the desk, Marie apparently, said she would announce their presence and directed them to sit in the waiting area.

Harry sat Hermione down "Relax! It's a good meeting don't worry! It'll be great."

Hermione was still in shock and couldn't believe she was going into a meeting with the minister dressed as she was. She wasn't oblivious to the odd looks her outfit was getting from the passing witches and wizards.

It wasn't everyday Hermione Granger came to the Minister's office and dressed fully in muggle clothes at that.

"Now, I'm going to head to my office for a bit, I'll come get you when it's over, okay?" Harry announced heading for the elevator, dodging a few of the paper airplane memos that came flying out.

Hermione just sat in silence, her thoughts running a mile a minute. It had been years since she had even been near the wizarding world and now, on her first venture back, she was sitting in the most important department of the Ministry for Magic.

To say she was overwhelmed would be a bit of an understatement.

"Miss Granger? The Minister is ready to see you now if you'll just follow me." A woman in a formal cloak came to where Hermione had been nervously waiting.

Was Shacklebolt still the minister? Or would she be meeting with someone new? Did they hate her for leaving the world and not doing what everyone expected?

Hermione made her way into the Minister's office with the woman who had come to get her. His office was a large space, ornately decorated with quite a few of the purple memo airplanes zooming in and out constantly.

Hermione finally focused and behind a rather large and stately desk sat Kingsley Shacklebolt. Hermione let out a sigh of relief, at least she had known Kingsley, and it wasn't a complete stranger.

"Hermione! How great to see you again! We miss you around here you know, you would've made a great asset to the Ministry!" Kingsley announced coming around his desk to shake her hand.

"Thank you Minister, however I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing here to be honest." She said bashfully, not wanting to seem rude but her curiosity took over.

"Ah yes, I see Mister Potter didn't tell you why I requested a meeting with you. Well then let's get right down to it! Also, you can still call me Kingsley you know, as Order members I think first names are acceptable." He said with a wink.

The Minister sat down behind his desk shuffling some paperwork around, Hermione sat awkwardly looking around the office, she couldn't understand why on earth the Minister for Magic would want to meet with her.

"Right, well I heard about the debacle with the escaped Death Eaters and how you were instrumental in getting them recaptured. Mister Potter made sure we all knew that Hermione Granger had once again proven herself an asset to our people."

"He exaggerated, I'm sure. Really I didn't do much."

"Hermione, I truly doubt that. Which is why I'm offering you a position with the Ministry. You wouldn't even have to leave your life over there in the United States." He told her gauging her reaction, when he saw he had her interest he continued, "It would be loosely connected to the Department of International Magical Cooperation as well as the Department of Magical Creatures and The Department of Magical Law Enforcement."

Hermione was speechless, she wasn't even sure what he was offering her.

"Um, Wow, Kingsley I don't even know what to say. What kind of position exactly would be connected to all those departments?"

"Well, we aren't entirely sure what the position will be called yet, but essentially you would be under the employ of the English Ministry while in the United States helping to control the massive increase of magical creatures that have been turning up all over the country."

"So, just to clarify, if I have this right, I'd be a hunter? For the Ministry of Magic?"

"Yes, I believe that is the term that the American Ministry uses to refer to the muggles who take on supernatural creatures. You would essentially be the wizarding version of a Hunter, of course with better pay and benefits."

"Wow, I don't know what to say. That's an amazing offer but are you certain I'm the right person?"

"Unless you know another witch or wizard that is in the United States that was the top of their class, and knows as much as you do about magical creatures?" Kingsley just smiled at her across his desk knowing there was nobody else who had earned the title 'brightest witch of her age'.

Hermione took a deep breath, she admitted she had been bored out of her skull since the Winchesters had left town. It had been months since they had left, she had gone back to her regular life and she honestly hated it.

However, Dean had essentially told her to stay away from them, far away and she had listened.

 _Hermione and the Winchesters made their way into her house after leaving the warehouse, the two remaining death eaters had finally been taken back to the ministry._

 _Hermione pulled Dean aside and tried to talk to him about Sam. In all her years at Hogwarts and in all the books she had ever read there had never been a muggle who had been able to throw off an Imperio._

" _Dean, it's never been done before! No muggle has ever successfully broken an Imperius curse!" she argued._

" _I don't give a damn if it hasn't! Sam did it and don't you dare try and tell me that Sam has something wrong with him again!"_

" _I'm not saying there's something wrong exactly, I'm just saying he may not be… entirely non-magical. There's got to be a reason that he did manage to break an extremely powerful wizards Imperio."_

" _Bullshit! Sam is completely normal, he is not a magical freak! There is no explanation!" Dean screamed at her._

" _Oh what? A freak! A freak like me you mean?" Hermione yelled back at him, tears in her eyes._

" _Yes! Exactly! It's all your fault that we even got into this mess! Magic and its freaky weirdness is the reason for all of this shit! Sam wouldn't have been some maniac's puppet if it wasn't for you and your entire world of freaks!"_

" _Dean! What's gotten into you?!" She was so confused, she had thought he had gotten past this, they had even kissed and made out a few times. Their night in the bar had been as close to a date as Hermione had gotten in a long time._

" _I'm just coming back to my senses. Magic is evil! I never should've gotten involved with this shit!" Dean said stomping over to where Sam had been watching their exchange in wide-eyed confusion._

" _Sammy! Get your stuff, we're leaving. I never want to deal with any of this magic bullshit again." Dean announced, turning to her "That means you too Hermione. I'm done, Stay away from us. For good."_

Hermione snapped back to present day, that fight with Dean had been the last time she had seen or heard from either of the Winchesters, she had been upset for a while and then she had gone back to her life.

And she was bored. Extremely bored.

"I'll do it! Who would I be reporting to?" she asked excitedly, she would finally have a challenging job, a job that would allow her freedom and to remain connected to the wizarding world. It just felt right.

"Mister Potter volunteered to partially oversee this project along with Amos Diggory, our Head of the Department of Magical Creatures. You would get your assignments from one of them, and once completed report back. There's a lot of freedom in this job, you can use whatever method you choose while having the ministry's support behind you."

"It would involve travel however, so you would be given fixed apparition points as well as some compensation for travel. The American Ministry is aware of this project and is willing to allow you a certain amount of freedom while operating on their soil. They've found themselves unable to keep up with the amount of magical creatures being reported in the last year or so."

"Wow, it sounds fantastic." She was already planning out how to get her life in East Hollow put together so that she was free to travel.

"Wonderful! I'll tell Mister Diggory and Mister Potter right away and get everything prepared. It's wonderful to have you as part of the Ministry, finally, Miss Granger." Kingsley said rising and shaking her hand.

Hermione left his office in a bit of a blur, she still couldn't believe that she was working for the ministry in America, under Harry of all people.

Harry greeted her and brought her back to the elevator with a wide smile.

The ride back up to the Atrium level went relatively fast with Harry filling her in on her new job and all the details after Hermione had given him a solid punch in the arm for making her worry and not telling her why she had been there.

He left her at the fireplace with a promise to get back to her soon with her first assignment after she had a chance to sort things at her house in East Hollow.

* * *

 **2 Months Later**

Sam and Dean were in some small middle of nowhere town in Wisconsin.

They had been investigating a case where children were falling into a coma for absolutely no apparent reason. A case which had been a bit personal for Dean bringing him back to when he and Sammy were kids.

Sam was still pissed off over the fact that Dean had made him use an ID that had the title 'Bikini Inspector' on it.

"Dude, get over it! It worked and that's all that matters." Dean had laughed at him.

Sam sat on his laptop researching, and a few hours later finally he was excited to have found something to go on.

"It's a Shtriga, They usually disguise themselves as old women."

"Fucking Witches, Again." Dean muttered, mainly to himself, but Sam still heard him.

"What? Dean, you need to get over this. Hermione was not evil and you just completely overreacted about everything."

"Whatever, I don't want to talk about her alright."

"Fine. Whatever."

A few days later, the brothers had wrapped up the case. After figuring out the doctor had been the one causing all the kid's pain and blasting it full of consecrated buck shot, the brothers were packing up before heading out of town once again.

Dean was in the Impala waiting for Sam to finish getting his snacks in the convenience store staring at his phone.

He still had Hermione's number in it from their case in East Hollow a few months back. This Shtriga case had forced him to evaluate the fact that maybe there were some differences in witches, Hermione certainly hadn't gone around sucking out people's life force.

If he was honest he had really liked her, and now he missed her, it wasn't often Dean would admit to missing anyone.

He had thought about calling her a few times since, he knew he had overreacted about the situation but he was pretty much convinced that he had burned that bridge. His thumb hovered above the little green phone icon trying to decide what to do.

Sam slammed the car door behind him, as he folded his long frame into the car holding onto his snacks.

"Who you calling?" Sam asked curiously, settling into the passenger side.

"Nobody. Let's get outta here." Dean said quickly shoving his phone into his pocket ignoring it for another day.

"Dude, just call her already. Don't pull this mopey crap, it doesn't work for you." Sam told him, he got back out of the car and walked towards the bathroom.

Dean knew Sam wasn't coming back until he was sure that Dean had called Hermione, he was a bitch that way.

Dean took his phone back out of his pocket and this time he actually dialed.

"We're sorry; we are unable to complete your call as dialed. Please check the number and dial again, or call your operator to help you."

Shit.

He looked at his phone and double checked the number. Then tried again, he got the same message again.

Had she left? Had something happened to her?

Dean's thoughts were running wild when Sam finally came back to the car.

"So? Did she yell a lot?" He asked laughing, before catching the look on Dean's face.

"The number's disconnected. Can't be completed as dialed, apparently. Think something happened to her?" Dean mocked the automated voice as he said this before sounding concerned for Hermione.

"I donno man, she's pretty badass. Maybe we should check? Drive up there just to make sure?" Sam couldn't help but worry about the witch who had helped them out and had fought with them.

"Seriously Sammy? That's like a 14 hour drive, well 10 for me." Dean half-heartedly argued.

"So? We've driven farther for less. Besides I kind of think we owe her, don't you?"

"Jesus Christ. Fine! We'll go." Dean relented, secretly feeling slightly relieved Sam had brought up the idea of checking on Hermione. He knew he wouldn't stop worrying until he knew what had happened.

Sam and Dean rolled into East Hollow the next evening heading straight for Hermione's house.

Sam and Dean went quickly up to the front door before Dean banged on it. The brothers stood there hoping that Hermione was there and had just changed her number or something.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity to Dean, an angry looking young red headed woman answered the door.

"What do you want?" She demanded, Dean noticed she also had an English accent, maybe Hermione had company?

"Um, Hi I'm Sam this is Dean. We were looking for Hermione is she here?" Sam asked hopefully. From what he could see the house looked different, none of Hermione's things seemed to be there.

"No. She's gone." And with that the woman closed the door in their faces.

Ginny had instantly recognized them from Hermione's description and had no inclination to tell them anything after their treatment of the witch who had helped them.

She turned and went back to making sure the house was still secure for Hermione before flooing back to England once her monthly check of the home Hermione refused to sell was done.

Seeing the home Hermione had seemed to enjoy so much left with someone else in it made both boys worry increase just a little bit more, so they decided to head for the library.

If Hermione wasn't in her home she had to be there, the woman had said she was gone but still, they hoped she was wrong.

Pulling into the parking lot of the library Dean took a deep breath. If Hermione was in there she probably wouldn't be all that pleased to see him.

For a minute he actually had the irrational thought that maybe she had changed her number just because he had her old one.

Walking into the library they could see the two others from before were at the desk again, Rachel and Adam.

Sam and Dean walked up to the desk, Adam giving him a nasty look while Rachel didn't look too much friendlier.

"Hey, uh, we were just looking for Hermione. Is she around?" Sam said giving them his puppy dog eyes.

"Nope" Was all they got in return. It seemed to be the only thing anyone was willing to tell them so far.

"Okay, uh, do you maybe know where we could find her?" Sam asked them since they didn't have a door to slam in their face as the red head had.

"Nope, not too long after you two jerks left town Hermione took a few days off. Then she came in, quit her job, and left town." Rachel told them.

"I don't know what happened with you two," Adam said gesturing at Dean, "But it made Hermione leave and we haven't heard more than two words since. It's been months! I don't like you." He threw in just for good measure.

"Please get out." Adam said standing with his arms crossed.

They left the library, Dean looking angry as hell while Sam was just depressed.

"I can't believe we caused this. We wrecked the life Hermione had worked so hard to build here." Sam said looking miserable. He had kind of envied the fact that Hermione had actually done what Sam had always dreamed of.

"No, you didn't, I did." Dean said tiredly. "It's obvious we won't find her, for all we know she's back in England, hidden in her magical little world over there."

Dean couldn't help but allow a feeling of disappointment to wash over him. He had genuinely liked Hermione, and then he had ruined it, the fear he had felt about Sam he had taken out on her and it had ruined any chance he had.

Now she was gone and he wouldn't have the chance to fix it, the chances of ever finding her were so small he knew it was impossible.


	12. Chapter 12

Oh my God, 12,000 views on this story! I never expected this story to get so much response, I'm so amazed. You guys are the best and hopefully you like this chapter as much as the rest, it was way harder to write this than the others but I finally got it done.

As always reviews are appreciated and anything you would like to see in this story I'll do my best to work it in!

Enjoy!

* * *

Hermione was exhausted. Just completely and utterly spent. Three months ago she had accepted this position and it had been non-stop ever since.

Once she had accepted the job with the Ministry her life had become a whirlwind of preparations and meetings and organization. Who knew there was so much preparation in creating a magical version of a hunter?

She had sealed up her home in East Hollow and Ginny had promised to stop in and check on it once in a while. Hermione hadn't been able to bring herself to sell the home that had been the beginning of her new life but she also knew if she kept going back to East Hollow she probably wouldn't be able to keep leaving it.

So, for now at least, she avoided it. Maybe it wasn't the most mature or well-adjusted type of thing to do but it worked. Hermione was hoping that once she got used to being a hunter, always travelling and working for the ministry, she might be able to establish a home base of sorts in her home in East Hollow. That's what she was telling herself anyways, her justification for keeping it.

Currently though, she found herself in a nice hotel in Washington. The American Ministry had a building here that Hermione had been spending the last month at, learning all about the American Ministry and how they were connected to her new position.

Hermione had spent a fair amount of time receiving some training on tracking and fighting the magical creatures she was hired to deal with. Hermione was sure the Ministry just wanted to be certain that they weren't going to send Hermione into something way out of her league and get their war hero killed.

Which was probably a good idea given the fact that Hermione's physical fighting skills were equally as atrocious as her wand work was amazing. She had squashed her cell phone on day two in a spectacular training fiasco where she managed to trip over her own feet, and by day 6 had a myriad of bruises forming.

Thankfully, after about a month Hermione had reached a much greater skill level and by the end of her training she felt extremely confident in her abilities to fight without her wand.

Harry and Amos had both spent some time in Washington with her, giving her apparition points and going over the basic ideals for her job. It had been a few months since she had accepted the position from Kingsley and she was finally feeling prepared enough to take on her first case.

Nervous, but prepared at least.

Hermione made sure she had kept in contact with Bobby in order to let him know which cases to avoid and to try and run some interference with other hunters. Bobby, of course, had asked about the Winchesters and after a few choice words he aimed at Dean, promised to try and keep the Winchesters busy with cases far away from her.

The boys may have been like sons to him but the gruff old hunter also had a soft spot for Hermione.

* * *

Sam and Dean had just left Salvation Iowa after the debacle with Meg and the Colt. They were at Bobby's house in the hopes of getting some help from someone with more experience at hunting, to find their dad and fighting Azazel.

Dean was talking to Bobby about everything that had happened while Sam went through the books hoping that they would provide some sort of answer or solution.

Bobby had just gotten up to get a new beer when he suddenly turned to look at Dean.

"Boy, I know this isn't exactly the time for this little chat, but I'll have you know that even if I'm helpin you with this, I'm still pissed about the way you treated Hermione. Don't think we ain't gonna talk about that once all this is over." Bobby told him with a look that promised this wasn't a subject that he was done with.

Dean sighed and downed the rest of his beer, at least now he knew Hermione was still alive.

Sam suddenly piped up about demon traps and asked if they actually worked. Bobby confirmed that the drawings would hold a demon in place until they either died or the line of the trap was ruined.

Bobby began lecturing them on how this was some serious crap they had stepped in and how they and their father were right in the middle.

Sam and Dean were digesting the news about a sudden increase in possessions and demon activity when the door to the house burst open and Meg walked in.

"No more crap, okay? I want the real colt, right now." She demanded throwing the boys around the room.

Dean tried to move his arms or legs even just a fraction of an inch but found it to be impossible. Meg called them out on the fact that they still had the colt, releasing them. The boys slowly led her to the other room, under the exact spot Bobby had a demon trap painted on the roof. The boys just prayed that it actually worked and Meg didn't catch onto their plan.

Once she realized what they had done Meg was livid, Dean and Sam looked to Bobby in a What-do-we-do-now type of way. Bobby handed them a book, an exorcism printed in it in Latin.

It wasn't until hours later, after they had interrogated Meg about their dad that Sam finally finished exorcising her. They knew their dad was still alive, and before she had died the girl that had been trapped in the body Meg commandeered had given them a hint. Sunrise. Whatever that meant, and a location.

Jefferson City.

Dean had a place and he was on a mission. Maybe the demon they were looking for wasn't there, but their dad sure was and that was enough for him.

Sam had tried talking to him about everything but Dean wasn't interested. Until Sam started to draw on the trunk of his car that was.

"What the hell!" Suddenly Dean was right beside him trying to rub the drawing off his baby.

"We can leave the colt in here while we go get Dad." Sam was saying, drawing yet another symbol on the trunk of Dean's precious car.

"What are you talking about? We're taking it with us." Dean said giving him a look that said he was an idiot for suggesting that they leave it behind.

"No. We don't have enough bullets, we need to save it for _the_ demon, not waste it." Sam fired back.

Dean finally relented after they exchanged a few more choice words to each other. They began walking out from where they had parked the Impala towards the buildings, trying to find the one with their dad in it.

It didn't take long and they found an apartment block called Sunrise, which explained the clue from not-Meg before she died. The boys figured that the building had to be filled with people who were being possessed by demons, no way would it be as simple as walking right in with no resistance.

That just wasn't how Winchester luck worked.

They began trying to think of ways to get into the building when Dean looked at him and told him to pull the fire alarm.

It took Sam a minute to figure out that Dean meant the one in the building. That would be the easiest way to get rid of anyone who wasn't involved and give them a way to easily sort the demons out from the rest.

The alarm however would bring the fire department which meant they would have seven minutes exactly, before they could get outfitted in fireman outfits to get in and get their dad out.

It had seemed like a good idea, dress up as firemen, use EMF, and get their dad. Too bad nothing was ever that simple. Again, Winchester luck.

Dean found their dad in an apartment tied to a bed. He had clearly been used as a punching bag since being captured, and apparently been drugged too.

The brothers ended up in a room full of demons trying to get to them and had to carry their father down a fire escape, only to be attacked by even more demons.

Christ, this really is not going the way I planned, Dean thought, dodging another demon attack.

* * *

Sam and Dean had finally got their Dad into the car and out to a cabin in the middle of nowhere, by that night they had him resting in bed.

Dean was exhausted. He had his Dad back from that demon bitch, but it had taken so much out of him. He felt like he could just sleep here for a week if it was allowed.

Sam tried to begin a heartfelt talk about how much Dean was willing to do to protect his family when John walked into the room.

"You should be proud of what you do to protect your family, Dean." He heard Johns voice come from behind him.

"You're not mad? That I used a bullet?" Dean was amazed, he had expected his father to give him a beating for wasting a bullet on anything but yellow eyes.

"Nah, I'm proud of ya. You watch out for this family, always have."

That was weird, his dad was never thankful or gave his approval so easily. Dean was beginning to get the feeling that something was really not right.

"Thanks"

The lights suddenly started flickering and the wind picked up.

"The Demon, It found us." John announced, "Sam go check all the salt lines, Dean give me the colt."

That was when Dean knew for sure.

This wasn't his father, his father would have been furious at him wasting a bullet, not proud. This thing was acting nothing like the man Dean had spent years of his life learning from and following.

Dean leveled the gun at the thing in John's body.

"You aren't my dad, you're possessed." Dean couldn't believe he had been fooled into believing this was his dad, like his life had even been that easy.

"Don't listen to him Sammy, Trust me" the demon controlling their dad said to Sam who had just walked back into the room.

"No… No." Sam looked like he had been kicked in the stomach. He slowly moved to stand behind Dean and looked like he wanted nothing more than for someone to tell him this was all a mistake.

"Fine, then shoot me, go ahead if you're so sure." John said tauntingly, he knew the boys would never be able to shoot him.

Suddenly, he looked back up at Sam and Dean his eyes were completely yellow. He threw both boys to opposite walls and pinned them there, he moved to pick up the colt that had fallen from Dean's hands.

"The holy water…" Sam began, remembering that he had tested their Dad before untying him from the bed.

"You really think that little parlor trick would work on me?" The thing laughed "I've enjoyed waiting all day for this, your dad is in here too, you know. Trapped inside his own meat suit, says hi." He tapped on his own head and gave them a smirk.

Dean got lectured by Yellow eyes about how he had been killing the demon's family, and Sam asked why the demon was killing the women they loved.

"You wanna know why? They got in the way. I have big plans for you." Yellow eyes told Sam.

"Can we just get this over with? Enough talk."

"Oh Dean, that's how you cope isn't it? This family doesn't need you. You know Sam is Johns favorite right? Even after leaving he still cares more about him than you." Yellow Eyes knew all the right buttons to push for Dean, his family was his weak spot.

Dean suddenly felt an intense excruciating pain and pleaded with his Dad who he knew was still in there somewhere.

Please, Please don't let it kill me was all Dean could think.

"Dad! Dad please, I know you're in there too." Dean began to cough blood, "Don't let this thing win."

John finally managed to take control back for a second, the boys fell from where they had been pinned to the walls. It was just long enough for Sam to get the colt which he pointed at John, Sam couldn't do it though, and instead he shot John in the leg.

Sam ran to check on Dean, he saw him lying on the floor with blood dripping from his mouth. Dean yelled at him to check on their father.

John demanded from where he was laying on the floor that Sam shoot him, kill him and the demon, while Dean yelled from behind him not to.

Sam felt so conflicted. His brother and his father both yelling two different things at him at the same time, he couldn't form a thought for himself in all the yelling.

He hesitated just long enough for the demon to escape and watched the cloud of black smoke leave his father's mouth. He had failed his father once again was all Sam could think.

Sam loaded them both into the Impala and drove at a speed Dean would have been proud of, to get his only remaining family to a hospital.

He was talking to his dad about how not everything was less important than the demon that had killed his mom and Jess when there were suddenly bright lights coming at them.

Sam didn't even have time to react before the impala was struck with a deafening crash and pushed off the highway. All three passengers were knocked unconscious as the driver of the semi that hit them, complete with a set of black eyes, got out of his truck and headed for the Impala.


	13. Chapter 13

Alright, another chapter down! I'm hoping that as this fic keeps going I'll be able to hit the major plot point of Supernatural while still making it my own version, not sure of how long it's going to be so far since it's kind of taken on a life of its own. Once again, let me know what you think!

* * *

Dean woke up disoriented and in pain. The last thing he remembered clearly was laying on the floor of the cabin choking on his own blood. God that was gross.

He moved his head around trying to figure out where he was, the sterile smell and constant beeping of the monitor told him hospital. Great.

What the hell happened? Why was he in the hospital? Where were his Dad and Sam?

His head still felt foggy and not like a jumbled mess. Dean sat up and gingerly made his way out of the hospital bed he had been resting in. He wandered out into the hall, yelling for Sam or his Dad.

That's weird. Why is it so empty? Hospitals were always filled with people.

Dean walked a little faster and finally saw a nurse at the end of the hall. Great! She would be able to help him out.

"Excuse me! Excuse me! There was an accident, I'm looking for my dad and brother?" he tried asking her.

The woman didn't even acknowledge that he was there. Rude.

Dean snapped his fingers in front of her face, still nothing. What the hell was happening? Why couldn't she see him?

Dean made his way down the hall trying to find an explanation. Nothing since he had woken up was making any sense. He came to a sudden stop when something caught his eye in the room he was passing.

It was him.

In a hospital bed.

What the hell.

He walked into the room and stared at himself, lying motionless in bed on a ventilator. How is this even possible?

Sam came into the room just then, finally!

"SAM! SAMMY!" he yelled waving his arms in the air.

His brother didn't even acknowledge his yelling. Shit, of all people he thought for sure Sam would hear him.

A doctor followed his brother into the room.

"Your dad is awake if you want to see him." The doctor informed Sam.

"That's great. How's Dean doing?" Sam asked the man.

"Well, He's pretty banged up but the biggest concern for right now is the head trauma. We won't know his full condition until he wakes up. If he wakes up, we need to be realistic." The doctor wanted to make sure Sam understood what was happening.

Dean couldn't believe he was hearing this, of course he would wake up. This was ridiculous, obviously this doctor didn't know how stubborn the Winchesters could be. No way was Dean dying in some crappy hospital.

"C'mon Sam, find some sort of hoodoo priest! Get me better!" Dean yelled, his brother still wasn't hearing him.

Sam sighed and walked out of Dean's room, presumably to see his dad, so Dean followed.

They entered a room just down the hall from Deans and he sat by his dad and brother listening in on their conversation. He couldn't help but feel a sense of loyalty to Sam when he got mad at their dad for being more concerned over the Colt than the fact that Dean could still die.

Dean got up and left the room not long after, he couldn't just sit around as a ghost forever. He wandered for a while before returning to his room. His Dad sitting at his bedside, Dean tried to talk to him again, asking why he wasn't even trying to help Dean.

"I've given everything for you and you're just going to sit and watch me die? You haven't even called anyone!" Dean yelled at his dad, beginning to pace back and forth. Dean wasn't one to panic normally but seeing yourself lying in a hospital bed and not being able to communicate with anyone was enough to make anyone a little crazy.

Dean suddenly saw some sort of thing go past his room at crazy fast speed and took off after it. What the hell was that? He followed it around the hospital for a while but couldn't quite catch up to it. Sighing in resignation he turned around and went back to sitting in the hospital room.

* * *

Sam came back into their dads room yelling before he even set foot in the room. That was more like it, his dad and brother never could get along for very long.

"Did you think I wouldn't find out?" Sam yelled throwing his bag into the chair.

"What are you talking about?" John asked him.

"That stuff you wanted me to get, you don't use it to ward off a demon, you use it to summon one. You're planning on bringing the demon here, aren't you? Having some stupid showdown?!" Sam yelled back.

"I have a plan, Sam" John tried to explain.

"That's exactly my point! Dean is dying, and you have a plan! …You know what, you care more about killing this demon than you do saving your own son!" Sam couldn't believe he was hearing this. His dad didn't seem to care at all that Dean was dying, what kind of father was he?

"Do not tell me how I feel! I am doing this for Dean." John yelled back.

"How? You're not thinking about anybody but yourself, it's the same selfish obsession!"

"You know, it's funny, I thought it was your obsession too! This demon killed your mother, killed your girlfriend. You begged me to be part of this hunt. Now if you'd killed that damn thing when you had the chance, none of this would have happened."

Dean couldn't handle this, the constant fighting between the only family he had. He kept yelling for them to stop, but of course they couldn't hear him, Dean just kept getting angrier and angrier.

"It was possessing you, Dad, I would have killed you too." Sam said quietly, at least it was quiet compared to the yelling minutes earlier.

"Yeah, and your brother would be awake right now." John shot back.

Low blow dad, Dean thought.

"I should have never taken you along in the first place. I knew it was a mistake, I knew I was wrong…" His Dad was saying when Dean got so angry he tried to hit a glass of water. It flew off of the table and it went flying, crashing to the floor.

Sam and John just looked at each other. What the hell did that?

Dean was stunned, he didn't think it would actually work. He was supposed to be a ghost after all.

"Dude, I full-on Swayze'd that mother." He muttered to himself.

Dean started to feel weird, he hurt, but he felt… fuzzy almost. He fell to his knees groaning in pain, what is this?

Sam ran out to the hall to see what all the nurses and doctors were running to, hoping Dean was okay.

Dean managed to stand finally and tried to follow Sam. He stood in the hall watching as the doctors shocked his body, and a white translucent figure tried to get to his body.

Dean was frozen for a minute before he yelled at it to get away grabbing the things arm. No way in hell was he dying here, no way.

The thing let out a wail and suddenly blew past ghost Dean knocking him over.

Good, if he could touch the thing, that meant he could kill it.

* * *

Sam left the hospital a little while later and saw Bobby at the salvage yard the Impala had been brought to after the crash. It was nothing more than a mangled heap of metal anymore but Sam still tried to save what they left in the trunk, including the colt.

Bobby said there was nothing to save but Sam refused to believe him. If he let go of the impala, it felt like he was giving up on Dean and he could never do that.

Bobby must have gotten the point because he dropped the issue and agreed to tow the car to Singer Salvage so that it would be there when Dean woke up.

Sam told Bobby what the doctors had said about Dean, and how they weren't sure he would even wake up.

"I'm going to find something. There has to be something we can do for him right? Some sort of voodoo priest or faith healer or something?" Sam looked at Bobby.

"… Balls. If he's in that bad'a shape maybe it's time to call in the big guns."

Bobby sighed… she was gonna kill him for dragging her into this.

Hermione had just finished a rather pointless expedition in Montana that turned out to be nothing more than some pixies playing tricks on people.

After stunning them all and rounding them up, which hadn't taken long at all, she had given them to a ministry worker. One that had been assigned by the ministry as the one who would transport the magical creatures Hermione dealt with to wherever they had to go. Overall, so far it seemed to be a decent system that the Ministry had worked out.

Hermione was vainly trying to smack some of the dirt out from her jeans when her phone went off. She dug it out and looked at the call display in confusion for a moment before answering.

"Bobby? What's happening? You never call me." Hermione wasn't sure why but she felt a sense of unease growing in her stomach.

"Hermione, I know you asked me to keep 'em away from you but we're desperate." Bobby began.

Bollocks, she should have known the Winchesters wouldn't stay away forever.

"There was an accident."

Hermione felt her stomach drop at those words. Oh god, were they alright? Dean may have been a ginormous douchebag but Hermione would never wish them any harm.

"Oh no… Are they okay?" she heard herself ask, still in shock.

"Dean and his daddy are in the hospital right now… The doctors, they ain't sure Dean's gonna make it. He's already flat lined once."

Hermione felt herself fall to her knees, numb. Dean who had been the one to help her with the death eaters, Sam the sweet giant thrown into hunting. It had been a long time since then but Hermione still thought of the Winchester's now and again.

Hermione heard a bit of a scuffle on the other end of the phone and Bobby grumbled in the background about how Sam could've just asked for the phone.

"Hermione? It's Sam." Sam came on the other end of the line, she could already hear the desperation in his voice.

"Sam! Are you alright? What on earth is going on?"

"I'm okay. Dean though… look I know he was an ass to you but I can't lose him. He's all I've got. Please."

"Oh Sam…"

"Anything you can do to help, anything at all. You have things we don't… Magic stuff." Sam sighed, "I think my Dad's about to do something stupid too. He wants to summon the demon that killed my mom and Jess."

"Sam… Where are you exactly? Right now." Hermione asked, John summoning the demon would be incredibly stupid.

Sam told her the name of the salvage yard and the city they were in. He had just started to ask what she was doing when he heard a loud crack from behind him.

"Christ!" Bobby yelled looking behind Sam.

Sam turned to see what had spooked Bobby and was shocked when he saw Hermione standing there. He noticed she looked different, if he had thought she was tough before he would have no doubts now.

Hermione marched over to them giving Bobby a big hug, Bobby looking about as shocked as Sam felt, but he hugged her back. Something Sam had never really seen the hunter do for as long as he could remember.

She turned to look at Sam, and smiled.

"Good to see you Sam. Now, take me to the hospital."

* * *

Dean was standing face to face with what he had eventually figured out was a reaper. A reaper that went by Tessa apparently.

"You're living on borrowed time Dean, it's time for you to go." She tried to convince him.

"No way. I'm not going anywhere."

"Dean, the fight's over for you. It'll continue without you, nothing you can do now."

Dean was so overwhelmed, there was no way it was his time to go. He was still in his twenties, he always figure that hunting would kill him young but not now. No.

He was not going anywhere.

"I'm not going with you, no matter what you do."

"Well, I can't make you, but you're not getting back into your body. You'll stay, become a vengeful spirit."

Dean felt like his entire life was falling apart, he couldn't become a vengeful ghost. No way, he couldn't become what he hunted, but he also knew this was not his time to die. No matter what this Tessa was saying.

Dean was seriously considering giving into Tessa when he heard them.

Sam was back, and he apparently had company. Dean could heard Bobby's gruff voice and another, an English one he hadn't heard in almost a year. Hermione.

Woo! Go Sammy!

Dean couldn't believe his brother had found her. He turned to look at Tessa again.

"Well, nice chat but that girl there is gonna get me out of this mess. See ya."

Dean left the room and followed his brother and Hermione, just in time to completely miss the billowing black smoke come from a vent and engulf Tessa's body.

Hermione was standing in his room digging through her bag, she pulled out a few bottles of odd looking substances. She had seen what was left of the impala when she had arrived in the salvage yard and couldn't believe anyone, let alone three people, had survived that accident.

"Sam, go make sure the door is locked. Muggle doctors tend to think us magical folk are a bit insane."

She turned back to Dean's body. He was no longer on the ventilator at least which would make this easier. Sam himself had looked pretty banged up, at least to her, and then seeing Dean motionless and unresponsive in a hospital she was still shocked.

Hermione had felt like someone had walked up and punched her square in the gut. She hated to admit it but she still had a soft spot for Dean, even after how things ended.

"Now, I'm no Pomfrey but let's see what I can do." She muttered, mainly to herself.

Sam and Dean had no idea who this Pomfrey was but they both stood back and allowed Hermione some room to work. Dean found it extremely odd to watch someone do things to his body while he stood aside as a ghost and watched.

Hermione uncorked the first bottle and turned it upside down into Dean's mouth. She then cast a charm to make him swallow it even in his comatose state. A few more bottles and Dean could swear even from outside his body he felt the improvement.

Hermione turned to Sam, "Now, it may not completely heal him but it'll certainly help. I'm going to go get a doctor."

Sam moved to Dean's side and grabbed his hand. God I hope this works, he thought.

Hermione returned to the room followed by the doctor who had been overseeing Dean and John's conditions since the beginning.

"I don't know what to tell you Miss Granger, there's no need to run anymore tests, there's been no real change in his condition since his arrival." The doctor sounded annoyed.

"Look, Doctor, I will pay for all the tests myself, and yes, there is a need for them now. I'm demanding you redo them, I believe they're wrong and I want new ones." She stood facing the man hands on her hips, eyes blazing.

Sam watched as Hermione continued to persuade, threaten and bribe the doctor into redoing all the diagnostic tests. He didn't know how she did it but somehow she managed to convince the doctor to administer all the tests again and re-evaluate Dean.

Almost an hour passed before the doctor returned.

"Well Miss Granger, it seems you knew something I didn't. I'm not sure how this could be possible but there's been a major improvement in Dean's condition. The internal bleeding and internal injuries are gone, his blood levels are replenished completely, and really the only thing remaining is a slight brain trauma which also improved and looks as though it should clear up completely within a week. Sam, your brother is going to be just fine." The doctor smiled at them before turning and leaving the room.

Sam let out a whoop of joy and gave Hermione a hug that lifted her off of her feet.

"Hermione, I can't thank you enough. You had no reason to come all the way here and help him but you did. We owe you so much. I'm going to go find Dad before he does anything stupid and tell him the good news."

With that Sam ran from the room.

Dean had fallen to his knees behind them when he heard the news, Hermione who he had treated like shit the last time he saw her saved his life. He had never felt so grateful and like such an ass at the same time before.

Dean stood and walked up to her, she looked different, even more warrior like if that was possible. Where the hell had she been? What was she doing? Why did she save him?

Dean wanted to give her a hug but still being a ghost he couldn't. He turned and stood looking down at his own body, man this was weird.

Suddenly, there was someone else in the room. Dean looked up and saw Tessa walk up to ghost him. This time however she had yellow eyes.

"What the hell." He yelled, Dean knew as a ghost he was helpless.

"Looks like it's your lucky day Dean. Little gift from your Daddy." Yellow eyes smirked at him before touching his forehead.

Dean was instantly sucked back into his body and woke up, for real this time.

* * *

Sam was walking down the hall to his Dad's room, so excited to tell him the news about Dean.

He turned to go into the room and saw his dad lying motionless on the floor.

No.

Sam's coffee fell from his hand and ran into the room, he grabbed his dad's body trying to wake him up. Sam's emotions did an instant turn, he had been so excited and happy to tell his dad about Dean, but instead, his Dad was dead.

"HELP! SOMEONE HELP!" he yelled.

Doctors and nurses came running into the room pushing Sam aside. It wasn't long before they called it.

John was dead, Sam had been too late and he had done something stupid. Sam went numb. He sat on the floor in his dad's hospital room unable to get up or move or do anything at all.

He just sat and stared at the wall. John was dead. It played like a mantra over and over in Sam's mind.

John was dead.

Dad was dead.


	14. Chapter 14

Alright! Here it is! Sorry this chapter is a bit late but its finally here. I'm hoping this will answer some of the questions I've been getting as well as getting the Hermione/Dean thing begin again. As always, let me know what you think!

* * *

Sam, Dean, Bobby and Hermione stood at the funeral pyre of John Winchester watching his body go up in flames, just the way John would have wanted to.

Sam watched the flames lick the canvas his father was wrapped in, feeling a sense of regret. He never was the son John had wanted, he had rebelled and fought his dad every step of the way.

Sam had even run away and gone to University, never once talking to his dad in all that time. Now, John was dead and Sam would never have the chance to gain his approval, he would never be the golden son like Dean had been, and he would never gain back the time he lost with his family.

Dean stood beside his brother, watching as the flames finally engulfed what was left of the man he had spent his entire life following. Dean was so conflicted, he remembered everything from his… out of body experience. The way his dad had tried nothing to save him, just to turn around and make the ultimate sacrifice and trade his life for Deans.

How was Dean meant to process everything that was happening? He was still angry, angry at yellow eyes, angry at his dad, angry at Sam, even angry at Hermione.

Okay, He may have been a little less angry with Hermione, after all she had saved his life, but it seemed only Bobby was truly spared from Dean's wrath. Dean still hadn't fully processed the last few weeks. The demon, the colt, his dad's death and then the car crash. Dean was still utterly overwhelmed.

Bobby was the first to turn away from John's body, unable to watch any more. That was one of his oldest friends burning up there. Bobby may not have agreed with all of Johns decisions regarding the boys growing up but John had finally put his kids first and made a deal for Dean and that was something Bobby could respect.

Hermione turned to follow Bobby, she knew the boys would want some time together with their father one last time. She hadn't even known John, but from what she did know, he probably wouldn't be thrilled with a witch being here, so she and Bobby left the boys to mourn their only remaining family member.

* * *

Hermione and Bobby were sitting in his kitchen, each drinking a beer he had found in his fridge. It was Bobby who finally addressed what they were both thinking.

"If Dean was already on the mend thanks to all your witchy-mojo, how the hell did Azazel's deal not fall apart? It shoulda been all null and void, right?"

Bobby still couldn't believe that one of his oldest friends had been stupid enough to make a deal. Why couldn't John have waited just a little while, or at least asked someone for help first?

"It may have been too late…" Hermione sighed "If he made the deal before I had finished giving Dean the potions and letting them take effect… or maybe it's all in the wording? Maybe the deal wasn't worded as a deal for Dean's actual life, maybe it was just for Dean to wake up? ... Who knows..."

Bobby couldn't believe John would be that stupid. John of all people should know that wording when it comes to deals is everything. If he hadn't been extremely careful about the deal he agreed to, then that could explain why, even though Hermione had healed him, the deal still went through to finish the job and complete the healing process.

"Balls… it's always in the wording and fine print, isn't it?"

"Always…" Hermione agreed, clinking beer bottles with Bobby before finishing her drink.

"I got a feelin' the boys won't be back for a while, you're welcome to take one of the beds upstairs if you want it." Bobby offered her, putting the empty bottles on the counter.

"Thanks… I may just take you up on that. It's been a hell of a day hasn't it." Hermione said standing and making her way up the stairs.

* * *

Sam and Dean stayed at the funeral pyre until it had burned all the way down to the end. Once they were sure their dad had no chance of returning as an angry spirit they sprinkled the ashes with holy water, just for good measure.

Sam and Dean both shared a feeling of guilt. Sam because he hadn't gotten to his Dad fast enough to fill him in and stop him from making the deal, and Dean, because he was standing here when it should have been reversed. Dean should've been the one having the hunter's funeral, not John.

The boys turned and in silence walked away from the remains of their father and the pyre.

They made their way back to Bobby's house, neither really knowing what to say to the other, so lost in their own grief they didn't even make a sound as they climbed the stairs and each went to their rooms.

Dean sat on his bed and drank. He drank until he passed out and couldn't feel anything anymore.

Sam sat on his bed and stared at the wall blankly. It wasn't until much later that he finally managed to fall asleep, although fitfully, for a few hours.

The next morning found Dean stumbling down the stairs with the mother of all hangovers. He made his way into the kitchen where Hermione and Bobby were cooking breakfast, what looked like enough to feed a small army.

Sam had made it into the kitchen only minutes before Dean and was sitting at the table with what looked like the biggest mug Bobby owned, filled to the brim with coffee.

Dean fell into the chair beside Sam with a grunt and before long Hermione placed a similar sized mug of black coffee in front of him.

"I have the Impala sitting out back, it's there whenever you feel like working on it, Dean. There's not a whole hell of a lot left, but Sam here wouldn't hear of it being scrapped." Bobby tried to start a conversation.

"Great" was all Dean could manage to say.

Suddenly, Dean rose from his seat, grabbed his mug and headed out the door into the back yard.

Sam sighed and looked down at the plate of food Hermione had just finished placing in front of him.

"Hey, look... with everything going on I feel like I never really got to thank you… for everything. I'm sorry Dean hasn't exactly been Mr. Grateful about anything."

"It's okay Sam. You guys have had a lot going on, I'm just glad you're both okay."

Hermione jumped when out of nowhere the three of them heard the sound of metal repeatedly hitting metal. Hermione looked out the window overlooking the scrapyard to see Dean beating the remains of the Impala with a crowbar.

Sam was halfway out the door when Hermione grabbed him.

"No! He needs to get this out of his system. Give him a minute and I'll go talk to him. Okay?"

Sam looked torn but eventually nodded and sat back down.

Hermione watched as Dean continued to beat up his precious car before finally stopping and collapsing beside it.

She left the kitchen and went to the junkyard. Hermione dropped to the dirt beside Dean and sat in silence with him, leaning against the impala.

It wasn't long before Dean spoke.

"I'm fine, Hermione. I promise. You can all stop looking at me like I'm gonna fall apart any second now."

"Yeah, I can tell by that lovely display of masculine strength where you beat the shit out of your car." Hermione sarcastically replied.

Dean couldn't help it, he started to laugh. That had definitely not been the response he had been expecting.

"Why'd he do it?" Dean asked sounding so lost.

"You're his son Dean. He was doing what he thought was best, what any parent would do."

"But he didn't need to… I was going to be fine, you came, even after I was such a dick you came and saved me."

"He didn't know, we're pretty sure he made the deal before I got to you… and of course I came, When Bobby called… I may not necessarily like you at the moment but I wouldn't want anyone dead." Hermione said.

"Right… I'm sorry by the way. I shouldn't have reacted that way when everything happened with Sam. I shouldn't have told you to stay away." Dean began, he desperately wanted to try to make things right with Hermione.

"What's done is done, Dean. Maybe it's for the best…. So, any chance of saving the Impala?" Hermione was still not thrilled with the way Dean had handled East Hollow and wasn't certain she wanted to forgive him just yet.

Dean couldn't help the feeling of disappointment that swelled in his chest when she had said it was for the best. Hermione had been the only girl he had felt like he could truly have a relationship with and be honest with, and now it didn't sound like she was interested anymore.

"Yeah… it'll pretty much be all new parts but hey, it'll still be the '67 Impala, I've been riding around in my whole life."

"Good, well, I'll let you get back to work on it then. There's a ton of breakfast in there when you're hungry." Hermione told him, rising from their seats in the dirt.

Dean stood and the whale imitation his stomach did answered for him what he was going to do. He followed Hermione back into Bobby's kitchen and sat back down in his chair across from Sam.

"What? Ya didn't think the Impala looked enough like a pretzel you had to add to it?" Bobby sarcastically commented on Dean's hissy fit outside.

"Yeah something like that." Dean answered, mouth half full of the food Hermione had placed in front of him.

Sam looked ready to launch into a heartfelt chat with Dean, at least until Dean threw a "Stuff it Samantha, Not now" at him.

Sam huffed and went into the other room to keep reading the mountains of folklore books Bobby had.

Hermione and Bobby watched him leave before shaking their heads and going back to their food. The three of them were silently enjoying their pancakes when a tawny barn owl flew up and began tapping at the window.

"Shit." Hermione swore under her breath and rose. She opened the door and the owl flew in past her and perched on the chair she had vacated, holding out its leg.

She took the letter from the owl and gave it a strip of bacon as a treat.

Bobby and Dean both sat eyebrows raised watching the interaction.

"…How do they know where to find you?" Dean finally asked, interrupting her letter reading.

"Magic." She said shortly.

Hermione sat reading her letter, brow furrowed, looking angrier by the moment. By the time she was done she looked ready to explode and her hair was crackling in anger.

"Uh, everything okay there?" Bobby asked cautiously.

"No! Not at all! I hate the Ministry some days! They're positively barbaric!" Hermione ranted, she took a breath and continued to mumble under her breath about 'that damned ministry'.

Even Sam had poked his head back into to kitchen upon hearing her rant.

"What's going on?" Dean asked, wondering what had managed to get her so riled up.

"The Ministry, I'm working for them now you know, they had the nerve to ask me if I would be willing to help them create a Werewolf registry her in the United States! As if I'd be willing to do something so ridiculous! Werewolves in the magical community get such discrimination and there is really no need for it." She was getting all worked up and ready to rant again when a second owl appeared and tapped at the window.

"Oh for Merlin's sake. What now!" Hermione stomped over and let the second owl in.

The three hunters were completely lost when Hermione mentioned things like the ministry and a registry. The three of them sat in silence exchanging confused looks.

"This one's from Harry, apparently he wanted to make sure I knew he hadn't agreed to have me help with a registry… Do you have some paper? And Pens? I need to write a letter back to this arrogant toe-rag of a wizard."

"Sure… I'll go get em." Bobby said.

Dean couldn't help himself and snorted when Hermione called this person a toe-rag. Sam just rolled his eyes and went back to reading.

Sam and Dean both tried to go back to things being as normal as possible, it just wasn't all that easy to ignore the giant elephant in the room when Sam kept shooting him puppy dog eyes, wanting to talk.

* * *

A few hours later, Dean was outside working on the impala trying desperately to straighten out the frame.

He looked up from his position when he heard someone clearing their throat.

Hermione was standing there with that damned beaded bag that seemed to hold more things than Dean had owned in his entire lifetime.

"So… I've got to go now, back to work. There's a banshee that needs to be dealt with in Seattle."

"Banshee in Seattle?... What kind of work do you do? Obviously it's not libraries anymore."

"Same thing you do. Except as a position for the British and American ministries of magic."

"Oh. So you're a hunter now?"

"Pretty much yeah... but for magical creatures"

Hermione couldn't handle much more strained conversation with Dean and decided to just cut to the chase.

"Dean stop feeling bad about East Hollow… It's all fine. I still think you're a right arse but enough is enough. I'm going to give you my new number, I kind of smashed my old phone while training, call me whenever. Or if you guys ever need help with anything."

"Sure, Thanks Hermione. I will, and… Sorry, one last time about everything I said to you. You didn't deserve it, it just… it scared me that Sam might not be totally normal."

Hermione gave him a small smile and before Dean knew it she was giving him a hug goodbye.

If Dean was honest with himself he had to admit that he had missed this. The way she fit so perfectly against him, her perfume, the way she wasn't scared to invade his personal space.

"Goodbye Dean. I'll see you around, yeah?"

And with a small pop Hermione was gone, leaving Dean to focus on his impala once again.


	15. Chapter 15

So I just have to say I'm so completely overwhelmed by the amount of people reading this. I honestly thought that I'd maybe get a handful of people but there's so many and it's become a much longer story than I had anticipated.

Let me know if you want me to spend more time focusing on the cases, sometimes I feel like I could take more time with that aspect of this fic, or if you want more Hermione let me know as well.

I'm truly sorry my updates have been taking a little longer lately, I was updating every Monday or Tuesday but now I'm writing as I go and finding I have way less time and it's taking me longer to flesh out the chapters from the basic ideas I have. But I won't abandon this so don't worry!

* * *

It had been months since their dad had died and the boys were finally starting to feel like things were getting back to normal. Maybe not entirely but they were getting back into the rhythm of hunting and finding cases.

Sam had stopped hovering so much and trying to force Dean into talking about everything and they had helped Ellen and Jo with a few cases at the Roadhouse.

They had also been working with Ash, the genius with the most impressive mullet Dean had ever seen, trying to keep track of any possible signs of the yellow eyed demon.

Dean was currently sitting in the driver's seat of the Impala he had repaired, crankily driving to their mothers grave to appease Sam. The guy just would not let go of the idea that they should put their father's dog tags in by their mother's headstone since it had popped into that damned head of his.

Once they finally arrived Dean wandered around the graveyard a bit while Sam buried their dad's dog tags by their mom's headstone. Dean couldn't bring himself to go talk to a chunk of rock when their mom wasn't even buried there. It seemed weird to him.

"What the hell…" Dean noticed a large circle of dead grass and a dead tree right by a new grave. He poked around for a while trying to figure out what was happening while Sam had some sort of emotional moment with their mom.

"Angela Mason! She died three days ago and nobody can explain this." Dean exclaimed to a doubtful looking Sam, after he had talked to the gravedigger.

"Don't get too excited there Sam, Might pull something." Dean sighed when Sam looked less than enthused by the prospect of a case popping up here.

"Are you sure it's a case? Not about something else Dean?" Sam said.

Oh for the love of…. Not this again.

Dean just glared at him and turned away, walking back to the impala. He couldn't handle another round of psychologist Sam lecturing what he thought was an emotionally stunted Dean.

Dean came back into their motel room to the sounds of the TV announcing 'Casa Erotica 4' and a blushing Sam staring at the black TV screen he had hastily turned off.

"Awkward…" Dean said walking into the room.

"Where you been?" Sam asked.

"Working my make believe case, Sam. You were right I really didn't find much." Dean began, his anger at Sam's doubt was starting to take over.

He saw Sam begin to get a smug look at being convinced Dean was transferring emotions or some other psychologist, , emotional crap into a case that didn't exist.

"Other than her boyfriend died last night… Slit his own throat, but yeah, that's totally normal right? People do that? Apparently, he had been seeing Angela everywhere before he died. I guess that's just me transferring or whatever you wanna call it, couldn't actually be a real case here." Dean's voice was rising with every word.

"Okay, Dean, I'm sorry! You were right there is a job here." Sam said defensively.

"I do know how to do my job Sam! So stop doubting me!" Dean yelled, maybe he hadn't had a big emotional reveal but he was fine. Dean was just fine.

He began to feel like the room was closing in on him and walked out before Sam could get another word out.

* * *

 **A Few Days Later**

Sam watched Dean work the case after finding the markings in the top of Angela's empty coffin with a growing sense of unease. When they went to the dad's house and Dean started yelling and accusing him Sam knew he had to step in.

"Dean! That's enough! He didn't do anything, Look around!" Sam hoped Dean caught his hint about the many living plants around the house they were in. Unlike the graveyard there was absolutely no sign of dead trees or plants.

Once Sam got Dean to agree and out of the house he knew he couldn't let Dean keep doing things the way he had been. Sam had been watching Dean tail spin ever since Dad's death and just couldn't take it anymore.

"He didn't deserve that! He didn't do anything!"

"Fine! So I was wrong, sue me." Dean said flippantly.

Sam stopped in his tracks and turned to him.

"Dean, you're on edge, you're erratic - except for when you're hunting, because then you're downright scary. You're tail spinning, man. And you refuse to talk about it and you won't let me help you." Sam pleaded with him. "Listen to me, we've both lost enough people. You need to stop this before you're next!"

"Fine! Okay, you're right! Yeah, I'm being an ass! But for now let's just deal with this Zombie chick before she goes off and kills the rest of her old friends." Dean finally relented a bit.

Sam finally felt like he may have gotten through Dean's enormously thick skull and took this one as a win.

"Man…Our lives a friggen weird." Sam sighed.

"No shit." Dean mumbled as he walked back to their impala.

He dropped the subject for now and went to work researching how to kill a zombie.

Hours later, Sam was up to his eyeballs in different ways to kill zombies with no real idea as to what would work and what was just completely fabricated. The fascination people had with zombies made it really hard to separate fact from fiction that had come from years of zombie movies and all the Halloween enthusiasts.

Dean decided to go with a ritual that would, hopefully, reverse the one that Neil the best friend had performed to raise the girl. It was kind of like taking a shot in the dark but it was the best plan they had.

The brothers headed for the cemetery after gathering everything they would need, including a giant silver spear type thing they weren't entirely sure what to call they would use to stab the zombie.

Angela appeared as Dean dug into her grave and, as planned, tried to plead with Sam for her life.

Sam responded by shooting her right square in the head and running back to the grave where Dean was waiting.

Angela came running out of nowhere and tackled him just before he could reach the grave prompting Dean to fire several rounds of silver bullets into her.

Angela's zombie body finally fell backwards into the open grave and Dean seized the opportunity. He shoved the giant silver stake into her, firmly keeping her in her coffin truly dead this time.

"What's dead should stay dead." He muttered, not completely sure if he was talking to her or himself.

Dean laid on the bed at the Motel after they had finally performed the ritual to erase the one that Neil, zombie girl's best friend slash resurrecting partner, had done.

He was still processing what exactly he had meant by dead things needing to stay dead, did he actually mean Angela? Or was he thinking about himself after the accident?

Dean was suddenly very relieved that Sam had gone out to pick up some food and snacks before they would hit the road again, it gave Dean some time to reflect.

Dean stayed on the bed, conflicted and grabbed his cell.

He laid there for a while just staring at the number in his phone.

Hermione's number.

He sighed and finally let the finger that had been hovering over the little green phone icon hit Dial.

The phone rang and rang, and right as Dean was about to give up she finally picked up on the other end.

After some rustling noises and a muttered curse word or two Hermione finally greeted him.

"Hello?"

"Hey, It's me... uh, Dean."

God Dean you sound like a 13 year old boy learning to talk to girls all over again. Pull it together.

"Dean! Hey, what's going on?" Hermione sounded like she had just finished running a mile.

"Did I catch you at a bad time?" Dean asked instead of answering her.

"No! No, I was just finishing up a job here. You?"

"Same. Zombie. " Dean suddenly felt stupid for calling.

"Zombie? Well… that's new. How are you doing Dean? Is everything alright?" Hermione sounded genuinely concerned and once again Dean couldn't stop the word vomit.

"No… It's really not. I feel like I'm losing it."

"Feel like unloading a little bit of that massive pile of emotions you keep hiding and ignoring?" Hermione gently prodded.

"..I yelled at, and then, accused the dead girl's dad of bringing her back… If Sam hadn't been there I don't know what would have happened. I had absolutely no reason to go off on the guy like that." Dean admitted.

"Oh Dean…" he heard Hermione sigh on the other end of the phone, "It'll be okay. Is this, maybe, about the car accident and your dad?" Hermione tentatively asked him.

Dean didn't answer right away, he never had been good at the whole touchy feely admit your feelings stuff.

The line stayed silent for a while, only the sound of their breathing coming through as Hermione patiently waited for an answer to her question.

"Yeah, I… I think it is." Dean sighed finally admitting that, just maybe, he hadn't gotten over it yet.

He appreciated the way Hermione hadn't pushed for an answer right away and let him reach it in his own time. It was nice having someone, and one who knew about the things that go bump in the night, to talk to other than his dad or little brother.

Dean had spent so many years taking care of and protecting his brother that it didn't seem right to burden him with Dean's problems now.

He took a deep breath and spilled what had been rolling around in his head since the hospital.

"When I was in the hospital, in the coma… there was a reaper there and she said it was my time to go. I should be dead, not my Dad. Why am I here and he isn't?" Dean finally revealed how he was feeling. The confusion and guilt had been eating away at him for months now.

"Dean, things are always changing. It never is 100% someone's time to go. I can't even tell you how many times Harry escaped death, once he actually did die and came back… I've even gone back in time and reversed the death of a hippogriff… Dean, People are always making split second decisions and changing the course of fate, if it truly had been your time then you wouldn't be here now." Hermione rationalized to him.

Dean couldn't help the few tears that had fallen down his face at the vehemence behind Hermione's words, he knew she truly meant every single one of them.

"God… I've just… I've been such an asshole to Sam lately. He keeps trying to talk and I just can't… How do I tell him that I feel like I should be dead and Dad should be here with him? How do I tell him that it's my fault Dad's dead?" Dean pleaded with her for answers.

Somewhere in the back of his head he knew he would probably feel a little embarrassed about his display of emotion to Hermione tomorrow, but for now it just felt good to get everything off of his chest.

"He's trying to help. I know how much it can suck to have someone constantly harp on you about feelings but it just means he cares. Dean, you are exactly where you're meant to be. Don't doubt that."

"Dad died right as I woke up and the Colt disappeared. There has to be a connection. How do I not blame myself for that?" Dean finally voiced the one completely undeniable thing that had been staring him in the face and haunting him.

"Oh Dean… When you and Sam stayed at the funeral pyre Bobby and I had a chat. I believe your Dad made some sort of a deal… Your life for his. My healing you didn't fully complete the terms of that deal and it still went through… at least that's what Bobby and I figured out."

"You and Bobby already talked about this?" Dean couldn't help but feel slightly angry at them for discussing this without him.

"I'm sorry Dean. I figured Bobby would have talked to you about it once I had gone… I didn't mean anything by it." Hermione tried to explain to him.

Dean could hear it in her voice, the honesty and remorse for not sharing this fact.

"Shit… I'm sorry Hermione. I'm just so on edge with everything… I shouldn't have snapped at you like that."

He ran a hand over his face and mentally berated himself for being so harsh to her. Again.

"Don't worry about it Dean. I'm a big girl and I can handle it."

He heard a bit of a laugh in her voice so he figured that was a good sign he was forgiven.

"Thanks Hermione… I just..." Dean couldn't find the words to express how much he had needed to talk to her.

"I know." She replied simply, cutting him off.

"Now, what else has been happening? Tell me everything." She demanded.

And he did.

Dean knew it was an effort to lighten the mood and distract him, but he was okay with that.

Dean smiled and filled her in on all his and Sam's activities, blissfully unaware of the fact that Sam had been on the other side of the door for quite some time and heard the majority of Dean's confession to Hermione.


	16. Chapter 16

Finally got this one done! Thank you to everyone who reviews it really keeps me going and I love hearing your ideas.

Hope you enjoy!

* * *

Hermione was crankily and exhaustedly trudging through a backwoods swamp in one of the southern states when her phone rang. Pulling it from her pocket she couldn't help the small smile that crept its way onto her face once she saw the name.

"Hello?"

"Hey Mione. Its Dean… you busy?" came the gruff voice from the other end.

"Just standing in a swamp" she sighed annoyed at being there, "but I can talk." She was bored out of her skull and welcomed the distraction.

"Great. Well, Sam and I were hoping you might be able to give us a hand." Dean said sounding unsure.

"Oh really? With what?"

"We got a call about a case. At first we thought we were on a pretty normal case, well as normal as monster fighting can be I guess, here in Nashville… but now we're not so sure." Dean began.

Hermione was waiting for the rest of the story when she felt a searing pain in her left ankle. She let out a surprised scream of pain and crumpled down into the swamp water.

She looked at her legs and realised she had been distracted long enough by the phone call with Dean that she had been snuck up on by the Dugbogs she had been hunting. The damned creatures lived in marshes and swamps looking like wood planks so they could sneak up on people and chow down on their legs.

She cast a repelling charm at the creature and cursed herself for agreeing to take this case, especially since she had been called while she was on a break and entirely unprepared.

She knew better than to go look for dugbogs without adequate protection but she had been so exhausted that she just wanted it over with as soon as possible.

Hermione had a fleeting thought of her dragon hide boots which were sitting in her motel room, where they were of absolutely no use.

Hermione pulled off the sweater she had been wearing and wrapped it around her leg to staunch the bleeding from the wound on her ankle. She pushed herself back onto her feet and once again cursed herself for taking this case. Hermione was never unprepared, she was always the one who over prepared, except this time she hadn't.

She looked around her and realised her phone had fallen into the swamp and was waterlogged beyond use. Shit. Well, hopefully Dean either didn't hear her scream on the phone or wouldn't be too freaked out by her scream.

Hermione hobbled her way out of the swamp muttering and cursing the entire way. A sailor would have been proud of the language coming from her mouth.

Her leg hurt like a bitch and with her sweater in her current position around her ankle, the tank top she had on wasn't exactly keeping her warm. It was only midday but the swamp she found herself in was cool and windy.

She finally reached the vehicle she had been using after what felt like quite the trek and climbed in, grateful she had decided to demand vehicles once she reached her destinations for her cases. The constant magic use for apparating and the chances of muggles noticing just hadn't been working for her anymore.

Hermione drove back to her motel, thankful it hadn't been her driving leg that was injured, and limped her way into the room. She was beginning to get a bit dizzy from the blood loss and dropped to the bed.

She rolled over and grabbed for her bag, pulling it to her, suddenly grateful for the tiny-ness of the room she was in meaning everything was in arms reach. Once she had the bag with her on the bed she dug through it for her Dittany.

It wouldn't be completely effective anymore as it wasn't being used immediately, but it would certainly help.

She sat up and slowly unwrapped her leg from the makeshift sweater bandage. She couldn't help but cringe at the damage the creature had done to her leg.

There was a substantial bite mark which had shredded the skin around her ankle and she had suffered a fair amount of blood loss.

She put a few drops of the potion onto her leg and watched as it began to heal, it still wasn't pretty and she'd likely have a scar, but at least she wasn't bleeding all over everything she owned anymore.

Hermione sighed and looked to the phone on the desk of the hotel room. Moving over to the desk she dialled, and hoped to God she had memorized Dean's number correctly.

* * *

Dean pulled his phone away from his face and looked at it as though it had deeply offended him. He had heard Hermione scream and then it sounded like the phone had been dropped before going dead.

He was pacing back and forth, as much as possible at least, in their tiny room when Sam came back.

He dropped the bags of greasy food on the table and gave Dean a questioning look.

"What's got you all wound up?" Sam asked sitting down at the table.

"I called Hermione to see if she had any ideas about this case." Dean admitted.

"Oh yeah? What happened did she blow you off?" Sam asked laughing at him.

"She screamed and then the line went dead, Smartass." Dean glared at him.

"Oh. Shit." Sam's mood immediately went from laughing at Dean to looking concerned.

"She can take care of herself, I'm sure she's fine…" Dean said unconvincingly, going to claim his food.

"You sure?"

Dean looked at him over his burger, "No." he sighed "But there's no way of getting a hold of her, sounded like her phone went swimming in the swamp she was in."

"…Swamp?" Sam said looking mildly grossed out.

"Pretty sure she was on a case of her own. I'm sure once she's a little less waterlogged she'll get back to us." Dean shut down the conversation.

Sam and Dean sat in silence gorging on the greasy food, both looking over the notes from their case once again. Dean still felt just as lost as ever, Sam too if the epic bitch-face and sighing were anything to go by. Dean was just about to give up when his phone began playing its signature ringtone.

Dean looked at it and didn't recognize the number, he considered just letting it go to voicemail but eventually decided against that.

"Yeah?" he greeted.

"Um, Dean?" Came an English accent from the other end.

"Hermione? That you?" Dean asked, he was fairly certain it was since she was the only woman that was ever able to give him goose bumps just by saying his name.

"Oh good, I was worried I hadn't remembered your number correctly. My phone went swimming in that god awful swamp." Hermione told him at a rapid fire pace he had trouble keeping up with.

"Everything alright?" Dean asked getting up from the table and heading outside of the room.

"It's alright now. Just finished confirming the existence of Dugbogs in the swamp I was at, I thought perhaps I could take a break and come to you and help with the case? If you still need it that is." She rambled nervously.

"You sure you wanna come all the way out here?" Dean was floored. He hadn't expected her to drop everything and come all the way to Nashville just to help them out.

"If that's alright…" She sounded so unsure, Dean felt a pang of guilt at making her feel like she wasn't welcome to join them.

"That'd be great! Just wasn't expecting you to drop what you were doing and come by. We're in way over our heads here and I'm sure Sammy would love to pick your brain some more." Dean told her, the small smile on his face betraying his excitement.

"Where are you guys? Exactly." She asked him.

"We're at a crappy hotel in Nashville, The Cortez." Dean went back into the hotel room and rambled off the exact address to her ignoring Sam's questioning look.

"I know of it, I'll be there soon Dean." He heard before the line went dead.

Dean hung up the phone and turned to look at Sam.

"So uh, that was Hermione." He started.

"Yeah I got that much." Sam looked at him oddly.

"She's on her way here. Now. To help us."

"Good. Maybe she can make some sense of all this crap. We've been here three days and got nothing." Sam looked relieved that someone else would have to look at the case.

* * *

A few hours later Dean was laying on the bed flipping through their dad's journal trying to remember all the information in it.

Sam was still trying to look up anything they could possibly need to know about their case on the internet.

Dean jumped when someone knocked on their door, he had been waiting anxiously ever since Hermione had informed them she was coming by. Instantly he was at the door, before Sam could even stand, and wrenched it open.

Hermione stood on the other side with her beaded bag, and waved nervously.

"Hey, Come on in." Dean moved aside for her.

Hermione limped her way into the house and sat herself down at the table with Sam. Dean was about to ask about it but Sam had beat him to it.

"You alright? What happened to your leg?" Sam immediately asked her looking worried.

"Oh, I was attacked by dugbogs while I was on the phone with Dean. Pretty nasty at first but it's healing now." Hermione shrugged it off. "So. What's been going on here?"

"Honestly, we have no idea." Sam sighed looking extremely frustrated.

"We've been here three days and we've got jack all to go on." Dean said gruffly, still cranky that they hadn't been able to crack this one yet. He wasn't used to struggling so much to get anything at all to go on with a case.

"So what brought you guys out here then?" Hermione said confused.

"Ellen. She' a friend that runs a bar that caters to hunters, she passed this case our way." Sam began.

"There's been a pattern of fire's happening in and around the city, we thought it might have been the demon that killed our parents but now... There's absolutely no reason for the fires, fire department can't seem to figure them out either. No signs of accelerants, no faulty wiring, nothing. We've been looking into the locations of them to see if anything stands out but nothing yet." Sam explained handing her a pile of newspaper clippings as well as turning the laptop around for her to see his research.

"We can't even figure out if it's some sort of creature or spirit or something else entirely." Dean informed her from his position sprawled out on the bed.

"Mind if I look through what you've got so far? I may be able to use a few other resources most people don't have access to, if nothing sticks out in the research you guys have already done." Hermione asked.

"Knock yourself out." Dean told her, "I'm going to go to the bar for a bit, see if there's any local gossip."

Dean grabbed his keys and coat and walked out of the room.

* * *

Hermione had gotten her own room beside the Winchesters and had taken all the research materials there with her. She figured at least in her own room she could relax a bit more and didn't have to hide the remaining pain from her leg.

She sat and looked at the police and fire reports from each incident, the witness statements, the notes that Sam and Dean had made, as well as any information that could be found on the internet.

Hermione began to form an idea in her head and turned her research to creatures and spirits that were known to be fire starters. She had ruled the majority of them out as possible culprits but still had a few ideas.

Hermione pulled some books from her bag and began checking ideas against magical creatures she knew of and researched even more that she didn't.

She desperately wished she had a fireplace here so she could floo her friends back in England but instead settled for sending an owl to her contact at the American ministry.

Hermione looked up and realized it was past dinner time, no wonder her stomach had been singing a whale song to her for the past hour.

She stood and went next door, she knew Dean had gone out but she thought maybe her and Sam could get some food. She knocked and stood outside the room waiting for Sam to answer.

Sam finally opened the door breaking her out of her reverie.

"Hey Sam, you eat yet?"

"Uh no, not yet."

"Great, let's go then!" She said not really giving him much of an option.

* * *

Sam and Hermione walked into the bar and sat themselves down in a booth along the side wall. Turned out that the bar Dean had mentioned before was the only place within walking distance they could get anything to eat.

Sam spotted Dean up at the bar chatting up the bartender. Typical.

Hermione sat and pointedly ignored the fact that Dean was flirting with the girl that was bartending.

After ordering, the two sat in the booth chatting and catching up on everything that had been happening lately. Swapping stories about cases with Hermione was far more interesting than Sam was used to because her cases generally involved magic and creatures he would likely never see in his lifetime.

"So, did you make any more headway with this case than we did?" Sam finally asked after they had finished eating.

"Well, I do have a few ideas. Nothing concrete yet however, I'm waiting to hear back from my contact at the American Ministry."

"Well, that's more than we've had at least." Sam commented.

"Not anymore!" came Dean's voice from beside them.

"Finally tore yourself from the bartender long enough to notice us?" Sam asked him.

"She was filling me in on the people involved with the fires." Dean shrugged scooting in beside Hermione.

"And?" Hermione asked.

"Well… not really sure it's anything but there is a connection with some of the people whose houses or businesses went up in flames." Dean said "There's a family here who moved here about six months ago, from somewhere overseas. They're connected to a few of the locations, sometimes in a minor way but there's still a connection."

"Good! Finally some sort of lead. Get anything else from her?" Sam said.

"The Kouri family, why don't you see what you can find on them? Maybe they'll end up being connected to all the locations." Dean looked at his brother pointedly.

"Sure, I'll see you two back at the rooms." Sam shrugged and wandered off.

He hadn't exactly felt like sitting around as an awkward third wheel while they danced around the obvious tension between them anyways.

* * *

Dean and Hermione found themselves still sitting in the same booth a few hours later and a lot of drinks deep.

They had been discussing the case at first which had then evolved into a playful banter between the two. Dean had called Hermione a light weight and, despite knowing that it was true, she had been determined to prove him wrong.

"We should head back probably… You're completely shithoused." Dean laughed at her.

"Am not! Gimme another, I'm not a lightweight." Hermione announced proudly, attempting to grab the half-finished beer in front of Dean.

"Oh no you don't girly." Dean told her scooting the bottle away from her grasp.

Hermione leaned her head on her arm and pouted. Dean was pretty sure she was seconds away from passing out right there at the table.

Dean scooted out of the booth and helped Hermione out, throwing her arm over his shoulders and supporting her.

"Why are we leaving? This is fun, I never do this, I should do this more." Hermione rambled.

"We're leaving because you're about to pass out on me sweetheart."

"Oh."

They waked in silence for a few moments before Hermione quietly mumbled something.

"What was that?"

"I missed you… even though you can be a ginormous asshat." Hermione told him.

Dean couldn't help but feel elated at her admission. He had missed her too, he had tried denying his attraction to her since he had screwed everything up, but it had never really gone away.

They had finally reached the hotel and Hermione had propped herself up against the Impala to support herself while she attempted to dig through her things for her room key.

"Got it!" She cried triumphantly holding up the key proudly, grinning from ear to ear.

"Alright, let's get you to bed."

Dean opened the door to Hermione's room and noticed she had passed out leaned up against the impala. He chuckled and picked her up bridal style.

Dean carried her through the door into her room and gently deposited her on the bed. He pulled her shoes off her feet and pulled the blanket up around her.

Dean pushed some of the huge mane of curls off of her face and had a small smile on his face as he turned to leave her room.

"Dean?"

"Yeah Mione?" he asked. Dean hadn't realised she had become half awake at some point and was surprised to hear her voice.

"Stay. Please."

"Hermione… I'd love to but you're drunk." Dean said trying to be reasonable.

"Don't care, I want you to stay. Just come sleep." She demanded.

Dean couldn't help but laugh at her, even drunk out of her mind she was still a demanding little thing.

Dean sat on the bed and pulled his boots off. He scooted back on the bed and let himself lay in bed with Hermione trying to ignore the excitement building in his chest. Maybe, just maybe they would be able to rekindle the relationship they had been building in East Hollow.

It was with these thoughts swirling through Dean's slightly tipsy brain that he fell asleep with an arm around a very drunk Hermione who had curled into his side.


	17. Chapter 17

Whew! Longest Chapter yet! Hope everyone is still enjoying this fic.

Any ideas you guys have about the case or the Winchesters being in Wizarding England please drop a review and let me know and, as always, I'll try and work them in!

Enjoy!

* * *

'Oh god. Everything hurts.'

Hermione was lying in bed, cursing herself for being so stubborn about her drinking abilities. The entire room was spinning in front of her and every time she moved she felt like her head would explode from the pressure of her headache.

Dean had left her room that morning after some awkward words and a groan as a response from Hermione. He had promised to bring her some greasy hangover food and Hermione was still waiting.

She had used wandless magic to summon her sunglasses and attempted to summon a hangover potion as well, but had simply ended up with a big pile of potion bottles. Apparently when hungover, Hermione was unable to focus enough on her specific intended item and so she promptly gave up with a groan.

Hermione wasn't sure how long she laid there trying to ignore the sunlight, the noise of people coming and going in front of her room, the way her entire body seemed to ache no matter how still she was. All she knew was that everything hurt and she was never going to be so stubborn about drinking ever again.

It felt like an eternity before Dean finally returned to her room and dropped a bag from McDonald's beside her on the bed.

"Eat it. You'll feel better." He told her.

"Do me a favor?" she groaned unmoving.

"What?"

Hermione could just hear the grin in his voice, she didn't even have to open her eyes to see it.

"Find the hangover potion? It'll be in a green vial, cork stopper, in that pile at the end of the bed."

She groaned and pulled a pillow over her ears as she heard Dean sort through the pile, the many clanking noises of the glass bottles colliding doing absolutely nothing to help with her hangover.

"Got it! ... I think." Dean announced.

Hermione lifted her arm and grabbed the bottle. She opened one eye and inspected it, once she was sure it was the proper potion she downed the thing as fast as she could.

Dean sat in the chair laughing at Hermione's antics until she was feeling better.

Hermione finally sat up and devoured the food Dean had brought her. She was halfway through the fries when she heard a tapping on the window.

"Can you go open the door for the owl?" She looked at Dean.

"Huh?" he looked at her genuinely confused, "Did that potion do something to your head?"

"No. That tapping noise, it's the sound of an owl delivering a letter. Can you please open the door and let it in?" She asked patiently.

Dean got up and cautiously opened the door, looking like he expected the owl to attack him as soon as he did. Once the door was open a tawny owl flew in and, if possible, it looked very annoyed at being kept waiting.

The owl perched upon the table and held out its leg for Hermione, she untied the letter and gave it a treat.

 _Hermione,_

 _I wish I could help, however I can't think of any creatures that match what you're asking and there was nothing in our records here at the Department._

 _Perhaps you could try the Ministry in England?_

 _All the best,_

 _Pierce._

"Well shit." She threw the letter onto the table.

"Something wrong?" Dean asked her.

"My contact at the ministry couldn't help. Suggested that I try the Ministry in England."

"Damn. What's wrong with England?"

"They won't be able to help. I only really know one person who may have some ideas."

Hermione was not looking forward to what she was likely going to have to do.

"Can you give me a bit to get ready? Now that I can function, I feel like I need to shower. I'll come over to your guys' room when I'm done."

"Yeah, I'll go see if Sammy had any bib breakthroughs with the case."

Dean left Hermione's to go next door to their room and Hermione went into the bathroom attached to her little space.

Hermione took one look at herself in the mirror and cringed. No wonder Dean had been laughing at her. Her hair was sticking up at odd angles and the makeup she had on yesterday was no longer on the same areas of her face that she had put it.

Hermione inspected her leg injury from the swamp creature bite. She still had a slight limp but it was slowly improving.

She turned from the mirror and tried to make herself presentable for the day. She showered and attempted to tame the hair that seemed to get even crazier when she was hungover, put on some makeup and braced herself for the day.

Finally leaving her room Hermione went next door and knocked.

Sam opened the door and grinned at her.

"How was your night?" he laughed.

"Shut up." She grumbled and walked in trying not to blush.

Hermione had woken up that morning wrapped around Dean, cuddled under his arm. She had been so hungover she wasn't even able to move away, she had simply groaned in pain and put her head back down.

She walked into their room, ignoring Sam's giggles, and sat at the table.

"Any plans for the day?" she asked trying to distract Sam from his giggle fit.

"Sammy here wants to check out the fire sites again, See if you can see anything we missed." Dean told her.

"Sounds good. How do you guys feel about a trip to England after?" Hermione asked them quickly, hoping they wouldn't really catch what she was asking.

"Uh, well, if it didn't take so long to get there and Dean there wasn't on every watch list in America…." Sam began, he obviously thought she was crazy for suggesting it.

"None of that matters, we'd travel by magical means and be back by tomorrow at most." Hermione explained. "If this is the creature I believe it to be, there's only one person I know who even believes they exist. They're also the only person who would know how to stop it."

Dean and Sam sat in silence staring at her, they both looked extremely confused.

"Okay, well judging from your silence how about we go to the fire sites, and if we don't find any other leads we try it?" she asked them.

"Sure. Why not, I've always wanted to go to England." Sam said giving in.

"Great. So let's go see all the pyro sites and then we can go to the land of Hermione." Dean announced heading out the door to his precious Impala.

* * *

The Impala loudly rumbled its way up to the original scene, a warehouse that had caught fire in the middle of the night.

Dean pulled up to the remains of the building and Hermione got out of the car and walked out to the yellow caution tape surrounding the area.

Dean and Sam walked up behind her pointing out various things they had noticed their first time through the site as they walked through the wreckage.

"The building was completely destroyed. The glass windows were blown out and all the different metals in the building melted from the heat of the fire." Dean told her.

"Which metals?" Hermione asked instantly.

"Uh, I think there was Aluminum, Copper, Iron, and Steel found in the scene." Sam said looking kind of confused by the question.

"What's that matter?" Dean asked her straight out.

"Well the average fire doesn't exceed about 1800 degrees. Aluminum melts at 1200, Copper at 1900, Iron at 2100, and steel doesn't melt until around 2600 degrees." Hermione lectured them.

"That would mean that since they all melted in this fire that it was nearing 1000 degrees higher than your average fire. The glass from the windows also melted, see there?" she told him pointing to an area where the glass from the windows had melted into the dirt on the floor.

"So this fire, which had no fuel, burned hotter than any old run of the mill fire should." Dean summarized sounding frustrated.

"Exactly. The report also mentioned the fire patterns, it started in the back over there, but instead of following the oxygen out to the front like fires always should, it went in various directions for no apparent reason."

"So we have a fire that acted completely against every known fire behavior?" Sam said looking concerned.

"Pretty much, this was definitely not your average fire."

The three turned and went back to the impala, heading to the next fire location.

Within a few hours, they had been to all the different fire locations and they had all been pretty much the same story. Each one had started for no apparent reason, burned way too hot for way too long, and hadn't followed any sort of known fire pattern.

The more she had seen the more Hermione had become convinced that this was caused by a creature or spirit that she had never really believed existed.

* * *

Dean parked the impala in front of the police station and turned to look at Hermione.

"So, how exactly are you planning on just walking in there and seeing these files?"

"Easy, I already talked to my boss. I'm already a government employee technically, and I outrank every single person in that building." She winked at him and climbed out of the Impala.

Dean sat there and scratched his head. He had never really considered the fact that Hermione wasn't your average hunter.

She had managed to find people willing to pay someone to hunt, and worked for the government apparently. He should've known, ever since he had met her she hadn't been your average anything, and hunting wouldn't be any different.

Sam was laughing at the look of chagrin on Dean's face after Hermione's rebuke of his criticism.

The brothers got out of the Impala and walked over to join Hermione where she was waiting for them.

"Alright Scully, let's see you do this." Dean told her as they entered the precinct.

The trio walked inside and Hermione's entire demeanor changed. Instead of being the cheerful, hunter of the supernatural she became someone Sam and Dean didn't expect.

Hermione's head went up, shoulders back and a firm look of determination was planted onto her face.

She walked up to the officer currently manning the front desk of the Hermitage precinct.

"Hello, I need to speak with the precinct commander, He'll be expecting me." She informed the young officer before he could even ask.

"Uh, Name?"

"Hermione Granger and two guests. He'll know what it's regarding." She told him in a no nonsense way that the brothers had never really seen her use.

"Have a seat. It'll just take a minute for me to let him know you're here."

Hermione turned from the desk and found Sam and Dean both looking at her with bewildered expressions.

"You know, you both keep giving me that look so often I'm beginning to think that's permanent." She joked.

"You just walked in… and demanded to see a Commander." Sam said stunned.

"Yes. I did." She looked at them amused at their shock.

Before they could discuss it any more an important looking man came walking swiftly out of the office at the back of the building.

"Miss Granger?" the man looked to her once he reached their group, "and guests." he gave Sam and Dean a quick onceover looking unimpressed at the boys.

"Yes. These are my associates." Hermione shook the commander's hand.

"I'm Commander Palmer. Come with me, we'll talk in my office."

The trio followed the man through the building and into the man's impressive office. The commander closed the door behind them and pulled up an extra chair for the third person.

"Now, The Chief called me yesterday and told me he had been called from someone way above him that we would be visited by a Miss Hermione Granger and to give her whatever was needed. Am I correct in assuming you are here to collect on this?"

"Yes. My guests and I are here looking into the string of unexplained fires that have been happening around the city."

"… The government is that concerned with a few fires here in Nashville?" The Commander looked at her dubiously.

"Yes. There has been a string of unexplainable fires and we'd like to know more. Now what can you tell me about them?" Hermione cut off any further questions.

Commander Palmer studied Hermione for a moment before relenting and telling her what he knew.

"Not a whole lot. They've been seemingly random fires, no accelerants according to the fire department, and no recoverable evidence thanks to the abnormal burning temperatures." He told them. "Frankly, they've been a major pain in my ass and if you wanna take the case off my hands feel free."

"Did you discuss this with the fire department? Anything they were able to add." Hermione pushed.

"Tell you what. I'll call 'em and you can ask them that yourself." The commander told Hermione clearly getting annoyed with the questions.

The commander went and got the phone number for the Fire Chief and put the phone call on speaker phone.

"Chief Patterson." Came the gruff voice on the other end.

"Mike, it's Todd Palmer here from Hermitage."

"What can I do for you?" The Chief asked.

"I have some people here who are looking into that string of unexplained fires. They wanted to know if you have anything to tell them about it."

"Shit, those goddamn fires. Pain in my ass is what they are. We've had five so far, no accelerants used which makes no sense at all since they all burn about 1000 degrees higher than average. No injuries so far luckily enough, but each building has been completely destroyed."

"And what about the fire patterns? I've been told there's something off about those as well." Hermione piped up from her seat.

"Yeah. These are no normal fires Miss. They do pretty much the exact opposite of what we would expect. They don't follow the oxygen and they start in the strangest of places. No wiring, no heating, nothing around that should be a firestarter."

"Alright, well thank you so much Chief. I believe I've taken enough of your time." Hermione ended the call.

"Thank you Commander Palmer, you've been very helpful." Hermione stood and shook the Commander's hand.

The three left the precinct and went back to the Impala.

"You okay Dean? You've been way too quiet since we went in there." Hermione looked at him.

"Yeah, All good." Dean told her with a grin. "I just can't believe how much easier this job could be if we had half the connections you do."

"Yeah, I wouldn't have to keep illegally hacking into records or spend half the time I do in libraries." Sam agreed.

"Seriously when was the last time we just walked into a police building and got right into the big bosses office without any question?" Dean looked almost upset that he had never managed to achieve that in all his years of fake badges and FBI imitations.

"Yes well, working for a government that has close ties to your muggle one does have its perks." Hermione smiled.

Hermione sat back as Dean drove and couldn't help but think how much easier things could be for the English ministry if they were half as connected as the American one.

The American Minister for Magic had monthly meetings with the President, claimed he found it to be beneficial to keep the muggle world updated on magical happenings. Hermione couldn't help but agree with the Minister on that one, after all it had just gained her instant access to all the information she could want about this case.

* * *

The three hunters had made their way to a diner down the street from the precinct.

Hermione dropped into the booth and propped her leg up onto the seat of the booth opposite her. The pain in her leg began to worsen the longer she was on it and was currently throbbing a pretty awful amount.

Dean scooted into the booth beside her and Sam across, careful not to hit her foot.

"You okay Glinda?" Dean asked her.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just not 100% yet." She sighed.

"Well, we didn't really find a whole lot to go on again." Dean sighed. "Did you get anywhere with the family when you looked Sammy?"

"Took me awhile but yeah, the Kouri family right? They've got a connection to each of the locations so far. The father worked briefly at the warehouse when they first arrived, the son babysat for the family who owned the house that burned. The next building was a loose connection, a cabin for the owner of the company both parents work for. The next two are pretty much the same story." Sam listed the connections.

"Okay so we got the connection, now we just have to figure out what the hell this family pissed off enough to burn down all their places."

"Where did they move her from?" Hermione asked frowning.

"England, before that they were originally from, I wanna say it was Iraq?"

"Where in England?" Hermione pushed.

"Ottery St Catchpole, or something like that at least." Sam told her.

Hermione just groaned and thunked her head onto the table. She was never going to get away from home it seemed.

"Why? You know the place?"

"Yeah, it has a very well-known wizarding population, I spent a lot of time there when I was younger. The more I hear about this case and the family the more I'm convinced this is a wizarding problem."

"So… Does this mean a trip to England is happening?" Sam looked at Dean and Hermione.

"Looks like." Dean said looking at Hermione.

* * *

Hermione, Sam and Dean went back at The Cortez hotel and each began packing a small bag for their trip.

Hermione had contacted her coworkers at the American Ministry who were currently working on gaining the Winchester's access to Wizard England. They had been extremely helpful when she had told them she was going to work her own case after Dean's call, and she was hoping they'd be able to get the same kind of help from the English Ministry.

Hermione had all her items back into her trademark beaded bag and took a minute to regain her composure.

She hated to admit it but she was completely terrified to go back to England, she really wasn't sure what kind of receptions he would receive from the people she knew she had to talk to.

After a few moments of sitting and trying to pep talk herself into getting going, she finally stood up and went to retrieve the Winchesters.

She left her room and noticed Dean was outside standing behind his Impala.

"Hey." She walked up beside him.

Dean had apparently decided that a trip to England warranted a large amount of hunting items out of the false bottom trunk. Hermione had never actually seen their storage compartment was surprised at the amount of items they had manage to fit in the trunk.

"So, England huh?" Dean looked at her.

"Unfortunately yeah, an old friend there used to talk about creatures that none of the rest of us every believed existed. Turns out she might be right after all." Hermione told him, she really wasn't looking forward to sucking up her pride and admitting she had been wrong all those years ago.

"She know we're coming?"

"Nope."

"Should be fun." Dean said slamming the trunk closed and turning back to the room.

"Hey Dean?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you. For staying with me last night when I asked." She knew one of them would have to broach the subject at some point.

"Anytime you want me in your bed just ask." He told her with a cheeky grin.

Hermione turned bright red and couldn't think of a response so she just began heading to the room Sam was waiting in.

Dean grabbed her arm before she could get past him, and before she knew it his lips were on hers.

Just like back in East Hollow, it instantly heated up and Hermione was backed up against the Impala.

She felt like she was melting and felt the instant chemistry flare right back up where they had left it, before their fight.

"We should get going probably, before Sam freaks out." Dean had pulled back slightly.

"Yeah probably." Hermione agreed before starting up their kiss again.

Dean made no move to remove his hands from around Hermione's waist and she didn't lessen her hold on Dean with her arms around his neck.

She finally broke their kiss after a few more minutes.

"We really should go."

Dean backed up slowly and grinned.

"Yeah let's go."

Hermione pushed herself off of the Impala and once again headed for the room to retrieve Sam for their trip.

Once in the room, Sam looked up at them and raised an eyebrow.

Hermione self-consciously tried to straighten herself out, knowing she probably looked thoroughly kissed.

Dean being Dean just grinned and clapped Sam on the back.

"Ready to go?" Dean looked at him.

"How are we getting there?" Sam looked to Hermione.

"Portkey, but it'll take two of them to get all the way to England."

Hermione dug through her bag for the first one.

"Now, when I pull out the Portkey it's extremely important that you both are touching it. Even just a finger will do, but you must touch it." She told them sternly.

Hermione finally pulled out a wooden box from her bag and opened it. Inside sat an old hairbrush.

"It's a time delay activation, so you guys have about 15 seconds after I grab it to touch it, otherwise you'll be left behind."

"It's a hairbrush." Dean looked doubtful.

"It is, it's also a portkey which will instantly take us to the American Ministry of Magic."

"Alright then. Let's go." Sam said, not looking much more certain of the plan than his brother.

Hermione grabbed the brush and held it out. Sam and Dean both reached out and placed a finger on either end of the brush.

They both looked at her questioningly for a second as if wondering if anything was going to happen when Hermione suddenly felt the familiar feeling of being hooked behind the navel.

Within seconds they were in the American Ministry, Hermione standing there looking down at Sam and Dean who were sitting on the floor looking rather green.

Hermione couldn't help it and laughed at the two hunters until they stood up.

Hermione led the brothers through a throng of people and over to a bank of elevators. Thankful that the American Ministry was set up much like the English one so she knew where to go, Hermione secured them a place in the elevator.

"Hold on." She told them before the elevator suddenly lurched backwards.

"What the hell!" Dean exclaimed as he nearly toppled over.

The other witches and wizards in the elevator gave him dirty looks while Hermione giggled.

Sam looked like a little kid on Christmas Morning the further they got into the Ministry and the more Department names he heard.

Finally the voice announced their floor.

" _Level 8, Office for The Minister of Magic."_

Hermione got off the elevator making sure Sam and Dean were following her. She knew their trio were receiving many odd looks being two very obvious muggles and _the_ Hermione Granger, but she found she really didn't care this time.

"Hermione Granger here to see the Minister please." She told the secretary.

"They're not gonna arrest me are they? I'm too pretty to go to jail." Dean looked distinctly uncomfortable at being in the office of such a high ranking government official.

"No Dean, they don't often interfere with muggle law." Hermione assured him rolling her eyes.

The trio was called into the Minister's office almost immediately.

"Hermione! Great to see you again!"

"You too Minister Lockwood." Hermione smiled at the man.

The American Minister was a short stocky man, one who took far too much joy in his job. Hermione often got the feeling that the Minister enjoyed being rather meddlesome, and actually reminded Hermione a bit of the Weasley Twins.

"Now, I've been talking to Minister Shacklebolt and everything is all cleared. Your group is all set to take this portkey and you will arrive in the English Ministry. Once there he said you are free to do as you please, as long as you remember to see him before leaving again Miss Granger." The man winked at her.

"As for you two." The Minister turned to the brothers giving them a stern look.

Sam and Dean both became extremely still and looked like they were about to be handed a death sentence.

"It's a pleasure to meet the two men who have managed to be two of the greatest hunters the Ministry has ever seen." The minister broke out into a grin.

"We are?" Sam asked timidly. Dean practically sagged with relief beside him.

"Oh absolutely! It's not often muggle hunters are skilled enough to get noticed by the ministry, but you two did. Plus, Hermione here has mentioned your skill levels a few times."

Hermione turned a slight shade of pink as the minister let that piece of information slip. She was positive the man took far too much enjoyment in embarrassing his employees.

"So, Minister, when do we leave?" Hermione asked attempting to get things back on track.

"Right away." The Minister told them as he pointed at an old teacup on his desk.

"Grab the cup and in a few moments you'll all be in England." He announced.

"Thank you again for all your help on this Minister. It was a massive help with the muggle police and fire departments." She thanked him.

"No problem Miss Granger, I find a call from the Department of Defense always makes the locals more helpful for our agents." He told her conspiratorially.

Dean looked at Sam in a slightly panicked and slightly impressed way, who knew Hermione's connections went so high?


	18. Chapter 18

Whew! Finally! I had such a hard time getting this Chapter out but it's done. It's also late because I went through and edited the previous chapters, not necessary to go back and re-read but it made me feel better about the story.

Next Chapter we'll finally get some Weasley twin and Luna scenes.

Enjoy! And as always drop a review to let me know anything you would like to see.

* * *

Once again Hermione found herself standing after taking the portkey looking down at the Winchester brothers.

Sam and Dean were both, again, half sitting half lying down on the ground looking distinctly green. Apparently portkey travel really, really did not agree with them.

"Sonofabitch." Dean groaned attempting to stand up. Sam took a few more seconds to make sure his lunch would stay put before pushing himself up off the floor.

Once Hermione was certain the boys were actually moving and uninjured Hermione finally looked around and took in her surroundings.

"Hello Miss Granger. Have a pleasant trip over?" Kingsley stood patiently not far away smiling at her.

"Minister! Nice to see you again, and thank you for arranging the international portkey for us. Our trip was fine." She thanked him.

Hermione found that she was far less nervous having a meeting with the Minister this time around.

Sam and Dean had finally managed to stand up, and both looked like deer caught in the headlights. Hermione supposed the long trip and now seeing the Minister likely was a little overwhelming to muggles.

Not to mention the fact that Dean's greeting to the magical world, and one of the most important men in it, had been 'Sonofabitch'.

The trio were standing in the room just off of the Minister's office, it was private and controlled enough that Hermione and two muggles hadn't just appeared in a crowd of wizards with no explanation. Hermione was certain that the minister had chosen this room for that exact reason.

The room they were in was filled to the brim with magical items and portraits, reminding Hermione of Dumbledore's office, as well as the little paper airplanes flying inter departmental memos around the area.

Sam and Dean had been in the American Ministry but it certainly wasn't anything like the British one. The British Ministry had adopted absolutely zero muggle technology and so, the brothers were getting their first glimpse into what the wizarding world was truly like.

"Wonderful, glad to hear it." Kingsley said as he led them into his main office.

"Now, Hermione, It's a bit late for you to begin any of your questioning about this creature. So I'd suggest you get a room for the night and then tomorrow you can find whomever it is you need."

"Right, don't suppose the Leaky Cauldron is still renting rooms?" Hermione asked Kingsley.

"Certainly. I'll send Tom and Miss Abbott an owl to save you guys a room."

"Thank you Minister."

"I told you Hermione, just call me Kingsley. Minister is far too formal. So, Mister Potter as I'm sure you know, is aware that you are here. He was adamant that I send you to see him once you arrived. He's in his office." Kingsley told them and walked them out to the main area.

"We'll head there now. Thanks again for your help, Kingsley." Hermione smiled at the man before turning.

"Yeah, um, Thanks." Sam shook the man's hand while Dean stood and gave an awkward wave.

The Minister simply smiled and made his way back to his office.

Dean was still staring at the very tall man wearing what looked to him like a big purple dress, who apparently was in charge of the wizarding world, when Hermione began to talk.

"Right, so before we head off to see Harry, I feel I should warn you. The English ministry is far more… magical than the one we were just at. Try not to touch much of anything." She told them.

Dean just gave her a smirk making no promises while Sam solemnly nodded taking her at her word.

'Great, Dean's gonna get us all kicked out of England.' Hermione thought sighing.

* * *

"So, uh, how far away is Harry's office?" Sam asked her eyeing the wizards and wizards in cloaks warily. Sam might be the more open minded one of the brothers but even he was finding this a little overwhelming.

"He's only one floor up. Won't take overly long to get there." Hermione responded somewhat distracted.

Sam couldn't help but notice the way Hermione squared her shoulders, letting out a deep breath, with a firm look on her face. To Sam it looked like she was preparing for battle, which didn't make a lot of sense to him.

Hermione turned and looked around for Dean who had already wandered off. She found him staring at one of the windows that was currently showing the weather outside as a hurricane. Sighing she walked over and informed Dean it was magically enchanted pulling him away from the window.

Holding Dean's arm and waving at Sam, trusting him to follow, she made her way through the crowds of people, many of whom were openly gawking at Hermione, to the extremely large bank of elevators.

Once a lift came with room for all three she crammed them inside and told them to hold on.

The elevator took off with a jerk, little paper airplanes circling overhead, and after a few moments it finally announced that they had reached their destination.

'Level Two, Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Improper Use of Magic, Wizengamot Administration, Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects, Misuse of Muggle Artifacts.'

Sam looked amazed at the list of departments and Dean elbowed him to get him off the elevator with a muttered 'Geek'.

"Right, Come on. It's this way if I remember correctly." Hermione told them.

Sam and Dean's heads both swiveled in all different directions trying to take in all the impossible things they were seeing.

Making their way around the corner and through a massive set of oak doors, they found themselves in a large room filled with cubicles, a wall filled with wanted posters, and more magical happenings than Sam and Dean could possibly ever take in.

"Hermione!" The trio spun around and saw Harry standing in the doorway to a rather larger office waving them over.

Making their way past all the cubicles took what felt like ages to Hermione, multiple people stopping and telling her how glad they were to see her back or just wanting to shake her hand.

Dean looked at Sam in shock. He had heard about the war from her and been told by Sam that Hermione was some sort of hero but this was more than he had expected.

"Is it always that bad?!" Hermione ducked into Harry's office a brilliant shade of red. Hermione was mortified, she absolutely hated being a center of attention, that position had always been Harry's job.

"It'll stop. It's just that nobody has seen you since the war essentially, so they never got the chance to thank you for saving them." Harry looked at her.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to that." She muttered.

"Wait, so, you're like Batman famous!" Dean looked ecstatic.

Sam and Hermione both rolled their eyes at Dean and ignored him, not noticing him going to poke at more magical items despite Hermione's warning.

"Nice to see you guys again, how was the portkey? First time I took one was bloody awful." Harry smiled at the Winchesters.

"Sounds about right." Dean grimaced rubbing his stomach while Sam just groaned.

"So, Mione…." Harry began slowly suddenly looking uncomfortable.

"Spit it out Harry." She told him, eyes narrowed and hands on her hips.

"I may have told Ginny you were coming and then she may have told the twins." Harry told her as quickly as he could.

"Lovely. So I'm assuming that means I'm expected to see all of them on this trip?"

"Yup. No getting out of it I'm afraid, I'd like to avoid another Bat Bogey Hex from Ginny." Harry looked sheepish.

"Bat Bogey Hex?" Dean asked, poking at a terrified looking man's portrait.

"Dean! Stop torturing that poor portrait!" Hermione scolded him, apologizing to the man in the portrait who looked mightily pissed off.

"Sorry?" Dean looked extremely confused.

Sam sighed and ignored his brother's antics.

"Right, well lovely to see you Harry. I think we'd best go get our rooms and then I suppose we'll be seeing you and Ginny later?"

"You got it 'Mione."

* * *

The Ministry had been kind enough to arrange all the transportation that Hermione and her two muggle friends would need.

The trip through the Ministry and out to London went about as well as Hermione expected. They ran into a ton of people wishing to say hello or shake her hand, all the while Hermione had to continue to keep track of Dean and Sam hoping they didn't wander off.

It took a lot longer than it really should have but they eventually made it to Charing Cross Road.

"Um, why did we stop here? Aren't we supposed to be going to that Leaky whatever place it was that we're staying in?" Sam asked.

"We are. It's enchanted so you two being muggles can't see it. Take my hands." Hermione held out a hand for each brother.

Once she had a firm grip on Sam and Dean she pulled them towards the shabby little building of The Leaky Cauldron.

"Whoa! What the hell." Dean yanked his arm from Hermione looking around the building he was suddenly inside that he hadn't been able to see minutes ago.

"Miss Granger! Minister Shacklebolt owled ahead for you, saved you and your friends there a room." Tom grinned at her from behind the bar.

The amount of people in the bar that immediately stopped what they had been doing to whirl around and look at Hermione made her feel like some sort of freak show.

'You've returned!' one man shouted at her.

'Hermione Granger!' another ancient looking witch exclaimed.

'It's her!' someone hissed to their friend while staring at her.

The noise that began was overwhelming and Hermione simply squared her shoulders and moved through the sudden crowd, pulling Sam and Dean with her.

She had almost made it to the bar when she caught a glimpse of someone she had certainly not been expecting.

A man with white blond hair stood stock still staring at Hermione from his place at the bar. The look on his face was one of shock mixed with what seemed to be shame.

Sam and Dean both collided into Hermione's back as she suddenly stopped moving and looked around to figure out what had caused it.

Dean was the first to notice the staring contest happening between Hermione and a Billy Idol wannabe. Sam looked at Dean confused who just shrugged.

"Granger." The man began, his eyes flicking briefly to the exposed word that sat prominently on Hermione's arm.

"Draco." Hermione purposely used his first name only.

She knew if the Winchester's heard her call him Malfoy they would instantly connect him to the stories she had told.

"Good to see you back." He said, looking immensely guilty.

"Only temporary I'm afraid." Hermione responded stiffly.

The man sighed and set down his drink and stepped closer to Hermione and her strange companions.

"Look, Hermione. I just… I know this isn't exactly the best time or place, but I want to apologize. For my actions, and for what my family did to you during the war." He said looking Hermione in the eyes.

Hermione couldn't help but look away. The intensity behind his words and gaze making her feel extremely uncomfortable.

"Honestly Draco, I forgave you a long time ago. After returning to the muggle world I spent a long time hating all of you. It took me a long time to realize that you were just a child as well, if any of us had been in your position I don't believe we would have done any better." She told him softly.

Sam and Dean stood behind Hermione attempting to piece together what exactly was happening but were still extremely confused. All Dean knew was that he didn't like the feeling of jealousy he was getting watching what was obviously an intense interaction between Hermione and this guy.

Hermione watched as Malfoy sagged with relief at her words and gave her a small smile.

"Thank you." He said quietly before turning and going back to the bar.

It wasn't until the noise started up again that the four people realised the entire bar had gone silent when the two had begun speaking.

Hermione knew they had likely expected a big blowout but after leaving the Wizarding world Hermione had gained a lot of control over herself.

"You okay, Hermione?" A young woman came out from behind the bar.

"Yes Hannah. Thank you." Hermione smiled at her.

"It's good to see you back, you know. Come, I'll show you three to your room." Hannah Abbott led them up the stairs, through the small hallway to the largest room the leaky cauldron had.

"Wow, Hannah. You've really cleaned this place up haven't you?" Hermione looked around.

"Yes well, Tom isn't exactly the best at keeping up with things around here so I stepped in."

Letting them into their room she simply said "I'll leave you three to get settled in" and then Hannah left them.

* * *

"Right, well. Let's get settled shall we." Hermione tried to ignore the event from downstairs.

"Who was that guy?" Dean asked immediately, jealousy apparent in his voice.

"He's likely gone already so don't go trying to kill him." Hermione warned him.

"What? What's wrong with him?" Dean looked confused.

"That was Draco Malfoy." Hermione braced herself for the obvious reactions.

"Wait… Malfoy?" Dean began, Hermione could tell he was slowly piecing things together.

"As in Malfoy Manor? Like where you were tortured?" Sam asked her shocked she had managed such a civil interaction with him.

"Yes. That was his family's home. He was apologizing for what happened that night and the things he did in the war." Hermione calmly explained.

"Son of a bitch. So his family is full of evil creeps and I'm not allowed to shoot him?" Dena sounded outraged.

"His family went through a full trial and were sentenced a long time ago. The one's who were evil and actually participated in the atrocities of the war are already being punished for it." Hermione lectured him in the same voice she used to have to use on Harry and Ronald back at Hogwarts.

"What about blondie? Why isn't he serving some sort of time?" Dean demanded.

"He got his sentence. He was a scared child who was forced to live with Voldemort himself. He been repaying his debts to the wizarding community ever since the war." Hermione explained to the brothers.

"Whatever. Fine." Dean complained as he went and set his bag in one of the rooms they had.

Hermione looked to Sam who just gave her a small smile in understanding.

Dean stomped back into the room and grabbed Hermione's bag from her and took it into the room he had previously claimed as his own.

Apparently he wasn't that angry with her.

Sam left and went into the second bedroom to settle in while Hermione followed Dean into the other.

"Everything okay Dean? I'm sorry about Malfoy."

"I'm fine. It's just the thought of him hurting you makes me wanna murder him. I've said it before, evil creatures are no problem. Evil people on the other hand I'll never understand." Dean shrugged sitting on the bed.

"Fear makes people do whatever they need to survive." Hermione stated simply.

"I guess. So where are we going next?" Dean changed the subject.

"Well, it looks like we'll be in England for a couple days so I'm going to need some wizarding money. We'll have to go to Gringott's and then apparently some of the Weasley's want to visit. Tomorrow we'll find Luna and ask her about the case." Hermione outlined the plan for the next couple days.

"This blows man. I haven't felt this useless on a case in a long time." Dean admitted.

"Oh Dean. You're far from useless. You guys are the ones who brought me in on this, you guys found the patterns, and you're definitely far from useless."

Dean smiled at her quickly and stood.

"Awesome, Lets go then. I'll go get Sam."

Hermione watched as Dean left the room. She couldn't help the feeling of nervousness she had about truly being back in the wizarding world for the first time.

She had been back briefly the last time but now she had to spend a couple days fully immersed in the world she had left years ago.

Taking a deep breath she left the room and retrieved Sam and Dean.

"Now, you two are in the wizarding world. You absolutely cannot kill anything unless I tell you that it's okay. No. Shooting. Okay?"

Sam nodded at her looking slightly unsure of what that might mean for them.

"Dean. No killing or attacking or shooting at things." She told him sternly noticing he hadn't agreed when Sam did.

"Fine." Dean looked a little put out at not being allowed to kill things.

Wonderful.

She just knew the next couple days with the Winchesters in the wizarding world were probably going to be extremely… Interesting, to say the least.


	19. Chapter 19

Blown away by the fact that this story is now over 300 followers. You guys are the best!

As always review and anything you want to see just let me know!

* * *

Hermione sat in the rickety old cart hurtling through Gringotts down to her vault, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. The trip through Diagon Alley with the Winchesters had been a challenge, to say the least.

Sam and Dean had been completely overwhelmed by the experience. Hermione remembered the feeling from the first time she had been there to buy all her supplies when she was eleven. The difference between her and Dean however, was that she hadn't sworn at and threatened to kill everything they ran into.

By the time they had arrived at the massively imposing white marble building of Gringotts Hermione had been pretty sure Sam and Dean were seriously starting to question their promise not to kill anything unless she said it was alright.

The goblins that ran Gringotts were as friendly as they ever were, perhaps even less so as they hadn't forgotten that Hermione had been part of the trio that had broken into Gringotts and stolen from it. As one of only four people who had ever broken in and one of the only three that had managed to successfully steal from the goblins, Hermione was not one of their favorite people.

As soon as Dean had entered the wizarding bank and saw the goblins he had let slip a few choice words and asked Hermione if he was allowed to kill them. Hermione refused and explained that Goblins and Wizards had a working relationship that went back centuries regarding their banking, it would be disastrous if he were to kill any of them.

Dean had grumbled and been extremely fidgety ever since, no doubt just itching to kill something. After all, since arriving he had been surrounded by things he would normally shoot.

Sam had remained quiet, instead staring at the goblins that were marching all over the bank, weighing the various coins and working as bank tellers.

Hermione had led them up to one of the Goblins working as a teller and presented the goblin with the key to her vault requesting a withdrawal.

Now, the four of them found themselves in one of the Gringotts carts flying down the rails deep into the vaults.

Dean looked ready to hurl at any moment, while Sam had finally found his voice and was asking as many questions about the bank and the goblins as he could think of.

Hermione was starting to understand why people had been so annoyed by her eleven year old self's constant questions when she had arrived.

Finally the cart screeched to a halt in front of Vault 537.

Dean climbed out of the cart and leaned up against the wall looking a sickly shade of green while Sam just watched as the Goblin put the key in the lock and then stroked a pattern on the door with one long fingernail.

"I am not getting back in that death trap! That's worse than flying!" Dean finally found his voice a few minutes later.

"Well, it's the only way out. So it's that cart or you can just stay down here forever." Hermione said exasperatedly from inside her vault where she was gathering the money she would need.

Dean groaned and climbed back into the cart with a death grip on either side of the cart and his eyes clamped firmly shut. Hermione was pretty sure she also heard him softly humming an old Metallica song. Weird.

Hermione and Sam climbed into the cart after him followed by the Goblin that had accompanied them to Hermione's vault.

"So, why do you need the Goblin to come with us?" Sam was asking Hermione.

"Security measures. If anyone other than a goblin tried to open the vault they would be sucked inside and trapped, the goblins go around and check for intruders about once a decade or so."

Once they reached the main level of the bank, Dean nearly knocked the goblin over in his haste to get out of the cart that had just stopped and Sam apologized to the little creature on his behalf.

The trio left the bank and made their way down Diagon Alley while Dean complained.

"Why couldn't I kill them? I mean them and their stupid death trap carts are obviously evil!"

"They are not evil. The carts are perfectly safe, you're just being dramatic." Hermione rolled her eyes at Dean's antics.

"Oh c'mon they're totally evil! All short and pointy teeth and with their death trap carts." Dean grumbled following Hermione and Sam down the street.

* * *

Dean was having an extremely difficult time adjusting to the magical world and accepting that it wasn't all evil. Since coming to England he had seen things flying around, and move on their own, the amount of magic that was being used openly had Dean's head spinning.

He followed Hermione and Sam through the crowds and into yet another store, this one called Flourish and Blotts. Why did everything here have to have such weird ass names?

"Sam you'll love this store. It has books from all throughout wizarding history on every subject imaginable."

"Great, I'm surrounded by nerds." Dean muttered flopping into an armchair to wait for his brother and Hermione to finish up in this musty old bookstore.

Dean sat for what felt like forever and watched all the strange people come and go from this bookstore. What kind of people still wore friggen cloaks of all things?

Dean had never felt more out of place in his jeans and leather jacket than he did sitting in a bookstore that had books he would've considered obvious signs of evil not all that long ago.

After what felt like an eternity Hermione and Sam reappeared and Hermione bought a mountain of books.

"Alright there, Dean?" Hermione laughed at him.

"Can we go now?" he whined, rubbing his stomach, he was starving.

"Yes Dean. Wouldn't want you to wither away to nothing." Sam muttered sarcastically.

"Bitch." Dean shot back.

"Jerk."

"Ugh." Hermione groaned shaking her head at the brothers, and left the store heading back to their rooms.

* * *

The three of them had just returned to their room in the Leaky Cauldron when there was a knock on their door.

Hermione went and opened the door, moving aside once she saw who it was so that Harry could come into their room.

"Hullo, Everyone ready for dinner?" he asked the three of them "Ginny apparently channeled her inner and has been cooking all day." Harry laughed to Hermione.

"Yes! Let's go I'm starving." Dean dramatically rubbed his stomach. "Is there gonna be pie?"

"Dean!" Sam scolded him incredulously.

"Might be, Not entirely sure what she's made." Harry answered Dean shrugging.

Years of friendship with Ronald had made Dean's eating habits seem entirely normal to him so he hadn't been phased at all by Dean's excitement for dinner.

"Right, Shall we then?" Harry asked.

"How are we getting there?" Sam asked.

"Apparation. I figured Hermione can take Dean and I can take you, Sam."

"So not a portkey?" Sam asked relieved.

"No, not a portkey." Harry laughed at him.

Hermione grabbed Dean's arm while Harry got a hold of Sam. Within seconds they were gone with a crack and reappeared at Potter Manor in Godric's Hollow.

The three of them appeared just outside the grounds of Potter Manor due to the protective magic surrounding the house.

Before them sat a stately home, not as large as many of the other pureblood family homes, but a decent size all the same.

"This is your house? It's huge." Dean asked Harry.

"Yeah, it's the Potter family home. Been around for ages but was hugely neglected once my grandparents died. Once I was told about it I spent a long time after the war restoring it and making it liveable again."

Sam let out a low whistle.

It didn't take long for the four of them to make their way to the house and Harry let them inside.

"Master Potter. Missus Potter is waiting for you in the living room with the two Mister Weasley's." came a squeaky voice from somewhere around knee height.

"What in the Christ!" Dean jumped backwards and grabbed at his coat where Hermione knew his gun was hidden.

Sam didn't look much more confident about the small creature that was in front of them but at least he didn't grab for his gun.

"Dean! It's fine, it's a house elf. They live with wizarding families and help out around the house." Hermione once again found herself scolding him hoping he wouldn't shoot it.

"It…That lives here?" Dean looked absolutely bewildered at the thought of sharing your home with a creature.

"Yes, they're really quite helpful." Harry laughed at Dean.

The small creature that had cowered at Dean's exclamation and hid behind Harry's legs peaked out from behind him.

"Master, I can go see Missus Potter now?" it squeaked out tugging on its large ears anxiously.

"Yes, Minsey. Go ahead and help Ginny out." Harry allowed the elf to leave.

"Way to terrorize the little… thing, Dean." Sam commented dryly.

"Dude, that totally looked like something we would kill!" Dean hissed back at him.

"Come on guys. Let's go face the Weasley's." Hermione interrupted and followed Harry to the living room.

* * *

As soon as they entered the room where the three Weasley's were waiting Sam instantly recognized the one he assumed was Ginny.

"It's you!" Dean exclaimed pointing at her.

"Nice manners, Dean." Sam laughed at him.

"You know Ginny?" Hermione looked at Dean questioningly.

"We went to your house when we couldn't get through to your phone after… well after everything. She was there and slammed the door in my face." Dean explained.

"Damn right I did. You deserved it too for being a right tosser." Ginny looked quite proud of herself.

"Just be glad you didn't get a bat bogey hex from her." One of the identical looking red heads told him.

"Yeah, they're her specialty! Right nasty too." The other one confirmed.

"What's a bat bogey hex?" Sam asked them, Dean looking a little disturbed by the thought.

"Makes all your bogeys turn into bats and they all fly out your nose! Ginny here has a lot of brothers so she's perfected that one." The first redhead explained.

"Nasty." Dean commented.

"Sam, Dean, these are Fred and George. Don't accept anything at all from them. They own the most successful joke shop in the wizarding world." Hermione warned them.

"So you're _that_ Dean, huh?"

"The one who couldn't handle Hermione being a little witch."

The twins stood and circled Sam and Dean, their tone hadn't been overly friendly.

"Ginny told us all about you."

"Fred, George, we've moved past that it's all fine now. Be nice." Hermione scolded.

"Aw but Mione! That's no fun!" one of the twins whined dropping their threatening act.

"Yeah, you know you're like a sister! We have to give this one a go of it!"

"Nice to see you too, guys." Hermione smiled at them.

"Come, let's eat! I'm starved." Ginny pulled everyone into the dining room.

* * *

"Merlin's beard Hermione. I didn't think I'd ever see anyone who could fit more food in their mouth than Ron." George said in awe.

"Think we can sneak in a canary cream without him noticing?" Fred asked quietly, also staring at Dean in amazement.

"Don't even try it, Dean tends to shoot first ask questions later, wouldn't want him to shoot either of you two." Sam muttered back to Fred.

Dean finally finished his pie and looked around at the rest of the table noticing that everyone apart from Ginny and Harry were staring at him.

"What?"

"How many pieces of pie do you reckon you can fit in there at once?" Fred asked.

"Please don't tempt him into trying it." Hermione scolded Fred.

George and Fred ignored her and bent their heads together, no doubt trying to figure out the best way they could prank Dean.

"Mione, Come into the kitchen with me?" Ginny asked her from the end of the table.

Hermione rose and followed Ginny into the kitchen.

"What's going on Gin?"

"Well, I hate to do this but I'm afraid I won't be able to keep traveling over to check on your house." Ginny informed her as she began using all the kitchen charms she had learned over the years to begin the cleanup from their rather large dinner.

"Is everything alright?" Hermione asked.

"Well, we haven't told anyone yet so keep quiet. I'm pregnant." Ginny was thrilled, Hermione could tell instantly.

"Congratulations! That's fantastic!" Hermione pulled Ginny into a hug. She knew both Harry and Ginny both always wanted a large family.

"I'm sorry about your house Mione." Ginny apologized again.

"Oh don't be ridiculous!" Hermione couldn't believe Ginny was even concerned about that at this time.

"We can keep Crookshanks here still if you wish. He's been enjoying wandering the land around here so far."

"Thanks Ginny. It's probably time I go back to the house anyways and sort everything out anyways." Hermione smiled at her.

"What about Dean? Something is happening with you two again, I can tell." Ginny prodded for information after a moment of silence.

"I have no idea honestly." Hermione told her. Sure, they had shared a few kisses again here and there but they never really discussed what was going on with them.

"Well considering he's been by your side the entire time you've been here…. I'd say he wants something to happen." Ginny advised "Plus he's seriously good looking Mione, quite the catch." She added before leaving Hermione and heading back into the dining room.

Hermione stared after Ginny and had to admit she was right. Hermione had just been avoiding it. Likely since the last time she had allowed anything to happen with Dean he had stormed off, unable to handle magic.

Now, however, he had managed to get over that. He was even spending a few days in wizarding society and so far hadn't shot anything. Hermione supposed that could be considered a vast improvement.

* * *

Hermione had left the kitchen and rejoined the group not long after Ginny.

They had moved everyone back into the sitting room where Fred and George were showing off some of their newer inventions and regaling the two muggle men with stories.

She took a moment and watched Dean as he interacted with two pureblood wizards who had never really left the wizarding world in their entire life. Dean didn't seem to have a care at all that just over a year ago he likely would've shot them as soon as hearing the word magic, now they were just like anyone else to him.

Hermione admitted to herself that perhaps she had been a little too reluctant in her willingness to give Dean another chance. If nothing else panned out, at least this trip was proving to her that Dean truly was able to accept her life.

"Hey Hermione, Come here!" George yelled at her.

"Yeah! We were just telling your friends here about the swamp we left behind at Hogwarts!" Fred continued.

Hermione made her way over to where everyone was sitting and put herself right beside Dean who was absolutely thrilled to hear the chaos the twins had caused.

Sam looked mildly horrified by some of the things the two of them had pulled at a school. He was certainly the more education oriented of the two Winchesters.

Hermione laughed along with everyone else as they reminisced and even managed to laugh at herself when Harry and the twins recounted the story of her failed Polyjuice attempt in first year.

Later on in the evening Hermione found herself settled onto the couch with Dean who had put an arm around her while Sam talked to Fred and George about his and Dean's prank wars they had had.

Sam was in the middle of explaining what Nair in a shampoo bottle was and how it meant he had been bald for quite some time when Ginny finally asked Hermione what had brought her back.

"It's been years since you've been home, what brought you back?" Ginny asked her.

"Well, we're actually in the middle of working a case. There's been a string of unexplainable fires all connected to one family." Hermione began.

"How did that get you back here though?" George asked her.

"Well, um, turns out I may have been too harsh on Luna during school. I need to ask her about some of the creatures she used to talk about."

"You're joking right?" Ginny looked at her like she was insane.

"No. Unfortunately not. I believe Luna may have been a lot more same than any of us gave her credit for."

"She was. She could make a lot of sense when she wanted to." Harry piped up remembering some of the few conversations he had had with her.

"Do you know where I can find her? I need to go talk to her tomorrow before heading home." Hermione asked him.

"Loony Lovegood. Who would've thought, do you reckon Nargles are real too then?" Fred asked George.

"They're probably in the same place as the crumple horned snorkack." George replied seriously.

"Guys! I'm being serious." Hermione complained.

"She's married to Neville actually. They have a place in Wimbourne." Harry told her ignoring the antics of the Weasley twins.

"Thanks Harry. I think perhaps it's best if the three of us head out now."

* * *

Returning to their room at the Leaky Cauldron, the trio were exhausted.

"I can't believe you were a cat." Dean laughed at her.

"Yes well, I had no idea that I had used cat hairs." Hermione indignantly replied.

"So, if Fred and George gave me some candy I'm assuming I should probably throw them out?" Sam asked her holding out a handful of treats.

"I told you not to accept anything from them. They gave you ton-tongue toffees, and some of their other not so fun treats." Hermione laughed at them.

As soon as Hermione had finished explaining the treats Sam had been given Dean exploded into yellow feathers.

Sam jumped back in shock and Dean let out a "Holy Shit!"

"Canary Cream." Hermione stated calmly, not surprised that Dean hadn't listened.

"Help me! You can't leave me like this! I look like friggen big bird!" Dean tried to plead with Hermione.

"I warned you." Hermione said before walking away and going to bed.

Sam laughed and followed suit going into his own room, tears falling from his eyes from laughing so hard.

Dean followed Hermione into the room, "Hermione! I can't stay like this forever!" he pleaded.

"Oh relax Dean. Look at your feathers, they're already molting." Hermione pointed out.

"Oh." He looked down and noticed that the feathers that he had sprouted were nearly all gone.

"Goodnight Big Bird." Hermione told him dryly before getting into bed.

Once Dean had finished getting rid of all his feathers he joined her in the bed he had chosen for them.

Hermione laid still for a moment listening to Dean's breathing from his half of the bed.

She took a minute to sort out her thoughts before summoning up her courage. Hermione rolled over so that she was facing Dean and just looked at him.

She didn't know what she had been so scared of. Dean was a good guy, he did what he had to in order to protect his family. Sure, he may be someone who indulges in the pleasures that life has to offer but that didn't make him a bad guy.

Hermione let out a breath and finally pushed past her reservations and moved her body over towards Deans. She curled herself into his side, much like she had been after their night of drinking.

Dean's arm dropped onto her shoulders pulling her in closer.

"Finally. I was starting to think you were gonna avoid this," Dean's sleep tinged gravelly voice came.

"Not anymore." came Hermione's simple reply as she rested her hand on his chest.

Before she knew what was happening she was flipped onto her back and Dean hovered over her.

"Good."

With that Dean's lips were on hers and any reservations she might have had about them were thrown out the window.


	20. Chapter 20

Whew! So sorry this update took so long but its here!

As always let me know what you think!

* * *

Dean woke up the next morning with an armful of Hermione. After making sure he was actually awake and not still dreaming, Dean took a minute to let everything sink in.

She had finally forgiven him. Last night he had been elated when she had moved closer to him and had admitted that she was done resisting him.

He'd be lying if he said he wasn't scared.

Scared of messing things up. Scared of being in an actual relationship. Scared of a relationship with a witch. Scared of a relationship with this specific witch after the conversation he had had last night with her friends.

Friends who had taken it upon themselves to ALL play the overprotective brother role.

Lucky for him.

 _Dean watched nervously as Hermione left the dining room with Ginny. He looked around and realised he was left in a room with three men who considered Hermione a sister._

 _Shit._

 _Sam must have noticed this too because he was giving Dean a knowing grin that told him he was so screwed._

" _So, Dean. I feel like we should talk again, about you and Hermione." Harry began, referring to the chat they had had in East Hollow the first time they had met._

" _You got any idea what you're getting yourself into mate?" George asked him._

" _Hermione is not someone you want to mess with." Fred agreed looking serious for the first time since Dean had arrived._

" _I don't plan on messing with her." Dean told the group._

" _I'd like to hear more about what exactly Dean is getting himself into." Sam piped up with a mischievous look._

 _Dean shot him a glare. Whose side was Sam on?_

 _The twins smiled at Sam in approval._

" _Well, there's not a wizard in this room who hasn't known her since she was eleven and we're all bloody terrified of her." Harry told Sam. "She lit a teacher on fire when we were eleven."_

" _Uh, I'm sorry, did you just say she lit someone on fire?" Sam looked horrified._

" _Well she lit his robes on fire to distract him. She didn't actually burn him or anything." Harry defended her._

" _She did keep a person alive, as a bug, in a jar for a year when she was fourteen to stop her from publishing nasty things about Hermione and this one here." George chimed in pointing his thumb at Harry._

" _She was always, and I truly mean always, in the library studying everything, even forbidden magics because she was just that smart." Fred pointed out._

" _She is still the brightest and most powerful witch of our age. There hasn't been anyone like her since." Harry warned Dean._

 _The more the three men in front of him kept telling him about Hermione the more nervous he got._

 _In a way though, it also served to reinforce the fact that if there was ever a woman that could handle his lifestyle, it was Hermione._

 _She hadn't run away screaming at the first sign of a ghost or supernatural creature._

 _She had proven that she was able to handle herself in the field, maybe even better than Sam and Dean. He wouldn't never admit that part out loud of course._

" _Don't forget the time she punched Malfoy in the face for being a twat and broke his nose." Ginny chimed in as she walked back into the room._

" _That was brilliant!" George laughed._

" _She managed to convince the ministry to give her a time turner in our third year. It's something that altered timelines entirely, and they gave her one just because she was so smart. Literally, just because she's brilliant and wanted to take too many courses in school." Harry remembered the time Hermione changed the outcomes of many things in third year._

" _And now she hunts monsters for the ministry, creatures that fully grown wizards who have been dealing with creatures their entire life would be terrified of." Fred summed up._

" _Dean, I think you better tread very carefully around Hermione." Sam told him sounding slightly awed._

" _Remember SPEW?" George said snorting in laughter into his drink._

" _Oh gods. Let's go into the sitting room if we're going to start a stroll down memory lane." Ginny herded everyone into the next room._

Dean couldn't help but wonder how he had managed to land someone with so many accomplishments.

The time in England had revealed a lot about Hermione and so far he had to admit he was liking it.

Hermione began to stir and looked up at him sleepily.

"Hey." She said softly.

Dean couldn't help but laugh.

"Hey to you too."

Hermione yawned and sat up, untangling herself from Dean.

"Oh my god." She suddenly froze.

"What?" Dean was worried.

Generally women were happier when they woke up the next morning in Dean's experience. Did she suddenly regret what had happened last night?

"Sam. Do you think he heard? How embarrassing." She blushed a bright red and sounded completely mortified.

He felt himself instantly relax once he realised what she was worried about.

"I wouldn't be surprised. Sammy's a light sleeper." Dean couldn't help but laugh at how adorable Hermione was when she was embarrassed.

"Oh god." She moaned "How am I supposed to look at him today?"

"I wouldn't worry about it. Sam's more of a girl about these things than anyone. He probably won't be able to look you in the eye for a week."

"Dean!"

"It'll be fine Hermione. Don't worry so much." Dean reassured her rubbing her arms and giving her a kiss.

"We should get ready for the day. We need to see Luna today." Hermione said softly, pulling her head back and getting out of bed to gather her things.

Dean laid back down to give himself another few moments of happiness as Hermione headed for the bathroom that was attached to their room.

* * *

Hermione left the room she was sharing with Dean after getting ready and went into the sitting room.

As soon as she entered the room Sam spoke.

"About damn time." He said without looking up from the book he was reading.

"What's that?" Hermione asked.

"You and Dean. It's about time you guys figured things out."

"Oh. Right."

Hermione stood uncomfortable for a minute unsure of what to do before Sam spoke again.

"I heard him. The night that he talked to you after Dad died."

"Oh." Hermione felt stupid for not having anything more eloquent to say to that. But really, what was there to say?

"I'm glad he did, you know, If he can't talk to me about these things I'm glad he has you. He never talks about anything and the fact that he called you… It says a lot about you two." Sam told her honestly.

"I'm glad I could help him Sam. I think he wanted to talk to you but he didn't necessarily know how to voice what he was thinking. He still sees you as his little brother and he will always try and protect you." Hermione admitted to Sam.

Dean probably wouldn't be happy with her for spilling his emotions for him but she knew Sam needed it.

"Thanks Hermione. For what it's worth I think you two make a good match." Sam smiled at her.

"I'm glad you think so." Hermione felt relieved that Sam wasn't going to be angry or disprove of her having a relationship with his brother.

Dean took that moment to enter the room.

"So. What's the plan today?" Dean asked.

"Luna. We need to talk to her and then hopefully head home." Hermione told him.

"Great. So, uh, where is this Luna?" Dean asked.

"Hopefully at her and Neville's home. We'll head over there and find out."

* * *

The trio arrived a short distance from a house that looked exactly like what Hermione expected of Luna.

It was a fairly normal looking home, apart from the garden, the zigzagging walkway, the fact that it was a very bright color and the section of it that was leaning on a very steep angle.

If Hermione had to guess she would say Neville likely chose the home and Luna had gotten to do the rest.

Much like the Lovegood family home Hermione had been to on their hunt for the Horcruxes this one had a garden made up of a variety of very odd plants.

"Is that…Is that her?" Sam tentatively asked looking at a spot in the garden.

Luna stood in her garden in her typical outlandish outfit, staring up into the trees with a notebook in her hand.

"Yup. That's Luna alright." Hermione laughed.

She pushed forward and moved closer to where Luna was.

"Hullo Hermione. Nice to see you again." Came Luna's dreamy voice, she hadn't stopped staring up into the tree so far.

"Hello Luna. Sorry to drop in unannounced, I just need to ask you something." Hermione began.

Luna didn't answer and continued staring into the depths of the tree.

"Can you see them?" Luna finally turned to look at Dean who had been trying to figure out what she was staring at.

"Uh. See what?" Dean looked at her.

"The Nargles of course. They're hiding up there in the tree. I'd really like to include them in the list of creatures I've discovered." Luna said going back to staring unblinkingly into the tree.

Hermione took a minute to laugh at the look on Sam and Dean's faces. She knew Luna could be a lot to take in.

Today Luna was in some sort of rainbow style cloak, her radish earrings in, wand once again tucked safely behind her ear. Luna gave off a very distinct aura, there was no mistaking that she was a strange woman.

"I think you've frightened them away." Luna chastised Dean turning away from the tree.

"Oh, Sorry…" Dean looked like he had no clue what was happening.

"So, Luna. I'm pretty sure you were right about the existence of Heliopaths." Hermione jumped right in. She had always found it best it be direct with Luna.

"Oh yes, I was. Have you seen one then?" Luna asked.

"Not really. There's just nothing else I can think of to explain a series of fires that are happening in America." Hermione explained.

"I've seen one you know… when I went to Iraq. Except there it's called an Ifrit." Luna wandered further into her garden taking notes on things that nobody else could really see.

"Ifrit?" Sam asked her.

"Mhm. It's a fire creature, big, with wings." Luna smiled at Sam.

"Any idea of how to stop it?" Hermione asked her following through the garden.

"I wouldn't touch that if I were you, they tend to harbor a lot of dabberblimps." Luna suddenly stopped and stared at Dean who was reaching out to poke a very orange, very spiky looking plant.

Dean snapped his hand back faster than Hermione had ever seen and made his way back to Hermione's side.

"What the hell is a Dabberblimp?" he quietly hissed at her.

"No idea." Hermione shrugged.

"Magic." Luna piped up as she stopped to stare at the roots poking out of the ground from another very strange looking plant.

"What?" Dean asked confused. Sam and Dean both seemed to be having a very hard time following Luna's train of thought.

"Magic. That's how you can get rid of the Heliopath." Luna told Hermione.

"Oh, right. Anything more specific than that?" Dean pushed.

Luna turned to give him a look that clearly stated that he should know that.

"It's made of fire. Use Magic." Luna said seriously.

"Right. Luna you're amazing!" Hermione said already working through things in her head.

"Am I the only one that is completely lost?" Dean asked looking around.

"No, I don't get it either." Sam looked amused.

"Perhaps you should try wearing a dirigible plum, or some butterbeer corks. They help protect you from the nargles that make your brain go fuzzy." Luna said very seriously.

"Um, right. I'll do that thanks." Sam smiled at her.

"Thank you Luna. We'll let you get back to your garden now." Hermione said trying incredibly hard not to laugh at how the boys looked entirely out of their comfort zone with Luna.

"It was nice to see you Hermione." Luna told her sweetly.

The three of them turned to leave the garden and the Lovegood property.

"Hermione! Can you come back for a moment?" Luna shouted from behind them.

"I'll be right back. Stay here." Hermione told the brothers making her way back to the garden.

"Dean is a good match for you Hermione. You're a very good couple."

"Thanks Luna." Hermione said curiously, this wasn't exactly the conversation she had been expecting when Luna called her back.

"Be careful. There's a very dark future ahead for those two, bigger than you can imagine." Luna was staring at Hermione very intently.

"What? What do you mean?" Hermione tried to push. She knew Luna had always been very odd but she was also very perceptive, she knew a lot more than anyone gave her credit for.

After Hermione had become slightly less rigid in her train of thought she had often wondered if Luna hadn't been blessed with the sight. Hermione was still firm in her belief that things like tea leaves and crystal balls were absolute rubbish however she did have to admit that there were some who were able to create true prophecies.

"Gods and Angels. Heaven and hell. Things far beyond our grasp will soon be a part of them. Be careful Hermione." Luna said to her again before turning and beginning to hum a dreamy tune poking at some more of the strange plants and herbs she had in her garden.

* * *

Hermione was back at the Leaky Cauldron and sat in the sitting room quietly lost in thought. She really didn't want to believe in what Luna had said, but she had also been forced to re-evaluate a lot of her beliefs in the last few years.

Hermione had run into a few true seers in her travels. Being confronted with the truth of their existence had made Hermione realize that she had been a little bit too logic driven in her youth. The need for tangible proof of absolutely everything had been both a strength and a weakness for her.

"You okay there Hermione? You've been unusually quiet since we left Luna's." Sam looked at her concerned.

"Yeah. Yeah I'm fine. Sorry, Luna can be a bit intense." Hermione tried to play it off and make Sam less worried.

"She's… different that's for sure." Sam laughed.

"Are we talking about Luna? That girl was straight up Looney Tunes!" Dean broke in.

"She's actually quite sane Dean. Just a little different in her way of thinking." Hermione defended her.

"Okay… Sorry." Dean held his hands up in defense.

Hermione sighed. She had either been quiet or snappy since Luna had given her the warning, and she didn't want to admit she believed it.

But she did.

God damn it she believed it.

Harry was on his way over to their room to give them the portkey from the Minister in order to get back to the U.S. and Hermione for one couldn't wait to get back.

"Did you get everything all packed up?" Sam asked turning the conversation to a less tense subject.

"Yup. All good to go." Dean said dropping into an armchair.

Hermione had been researching any kinds of magic that could counteract fire while Sam looked into the lore surrounding an Ifrit.

Now that Luna had given them a name at least they had more to go on.

Dean apparently wasn't interested in helping with the research as he sat there eating candies that had been left in the room for them and making various noises with his mouth.

Hermione was convinced Dean was attempting to set a record for the most amount of different noises one person can make with their mouth.

"Dean! For the love of God stop." Sam finally burst out.

"I'm bored." Dean said simply and not at all ashamed.

"Well, go clean some guns or something. Just shut up." Sam fired back.

"Bitch." Dean called.

Sam had just opened his mouth to retort when there was a knock at their door.

"Oh thank Merlin" Hermione said hurried getting up and opening the door.

"Hey, all set?" Harry asked.

"Yes! Any longer and I'm pretty sure Sam and Dean would have been in a brawl." Hermione laughed.

"Hey! I'm not that bad!" Dean cried.

"Yes you are." Hermione and Sam fired back at the same time.

Harry couldn't help but laugh at the strange group Hermione had found herself. He hadn't seen her so comfortable around any people other than himself and Ron and he had to admit it was a relief that Hermione had found people to rely on while she was halfway across the world.

"Right, well here it is." Harry said holding out an old shoe for them.

"Lovely." Hermione said wrinkling her nose.

The three of them grabbed their bags and said goodbye to Harry before grabbing the shoe.

Before she knew it the three of them were spinning through the air and landing in the office of the American minister for magic.


	21. Chapter 21

Hey Guys! I am so so so sorry this took me so long to write. University Finals and work and teeny case of writers block had me slamming my head against the wall.

But I finally got it done! The next update won't take as long I promise!

As always please leave a review and let me know what you want to happen!

* * *

Hermione, Sam and Dean trudged back into their tiny room in Nashville, all were covered in ash and smelled distinctly of smoke.

Sam was cradling his arm that had been hit with falling debris when the building had begun crumbling in the fire.

But they got it.

They had finally stopped the Ifrit, or heliopath, whatever you want to call it.

They got it.

Hermione was seconds away from falling over in sheer exhaustion but hey, at least the case was finally finished.

* * *

After they had gotten back from England the trio had made their way from their hotel to the Kouri family's home. Not long after they had arrived to get more information from the family they had begun smelling the distinct scent of smoke in the home.

Dean and Sam had instantly jumped up yelling at the family to get the hell out of the house, and as soon as they had made sure the family was safely outside they had gone back into the house.

There in the basement they found the creature and Hermione trying everything she could to stop it.

A giant horse looking creature, its wings spread out impressively taking up a huge amount of space stood in one corner of the room, Hermione opposite to it. The creature itself was engulfed in flames and every time the thing moved the fire spread even further and seemed to get even hotter.

Hermione had her wand and began thinking of every type of spell she knew that could do anything to stop fire.

Hermione kept thinking back to Luna's words, it's made of fire, use magic.

She could do that.

She began with a few Aguamenti charms which seemed to do nothing more than evaporate before it could even get close to the heliopath.

The home was quickly becoming engulfed in flames but Hermione knew she would likely never get another chance to stop this creature.

The horse like thing was moving slowly around the room making the fire move faster and faster. Hermione was starting to have trouble making out where exactly the thing was in all the flames and the smoke but she refused to give up.

Sam and Dean were yelling behind her, they knew the building would collapse soon and needed to get out.

Hermione ignored them and fired more spells at the creature.

" _Extinguere_." The fires dampened slightly but still the spell didn't have the desired effect.

" _Ignibus Duratus_!" The flames flickered and wavered but still weren't gone.

" _Glacies Maxima_!" Hermione yelled at the creature.

" _Diluvium Bombarda_!" Hermione flung the spell at the creature and noticed that the flames were even lower and finally beginning to lessen.

Each spell seemed to have more of an impact than the last. The Heliopath was no longer radiating flames and heat, rather it was beginning to move away from Hermione and slowing down.

Hermione was exhausted and could feel the impact that the amount of energy she was putting into the spells was having on her but she could not quit.

" _Frigore Totalus_."

" _Diluvia Glacies_!" She finally threw the last spell she knew and hoped that it was finally going to be enough.

The creature let out a noise of pain and fell to the ground. Without the fire to feed off of the creature was unable to survive, after all the creature _was_ fire.

Hermione had used enough spells she had all but exhausted herself but had managed to take away the very thing that made the creature able to live.

Hermione let out a sigh of relief and sagged to the ground.

"Hermione we need to go! Now!" Dean yelled form behind her, Sam was already halfway up the stairs.

Hermione forced herself to push through it, the flames had taken their toll on the house, it was falling down around them, smoke thick in the air.

The three of them finally emerged from the house and Hermione fell to the ground coughing. The exhaustion and the smoke inhalation had gotten to her.

Dean scooped her up from the ground and carried her from the area.

* * *

Once Dean had pulled the Impala up to the hotel room Hermione managed to gather enough strength to get herself to the room and to the bed.

"You okay Mione?" Dean asked worriedly. He had seen how much that amount of magic had taken from her.

"'m fine." She mumbled "Just exhausted my magic, need to… recharge." And with that Hermione was out cold.

Dean and Sam took Hermione's nap time to clean themselves up and stitch up the gash on Sam's arm.

"That was weird man." Dean said sitting on the bed.

"Yeah but what about this gig isn't? At least it's gone right?" Sam reasoned.

"I guess. Speaking of weird, had any more of those freaky weirdo visions lately?" Dean asked bluntly.

Dean hadn't shared it with Hermione yet, but Sam had had a few psychic moments while Hermione had been off hunting her own things.

They had learned that it was because of the yellow eyed demon but hadn't been able to learn much else.

"No, Not lately. Maybe it was a fluke thing? Maybe yellow eyes is done with us now that he's taken both Mom and Dad?" Sam theorized, hoping like hell that he was right.

"Yeah, let's hope so." Dean sighed laying down beside Hermione.

"Think she's actually okay?" Sam asked looking at Hermione. She had been asleep since they had gotten into the room a couple hours ago.

"I think she will be. That much magic? If it's like she explained it before where it's actually physically part of her, I gotta imagine it's exhausting using that much at one time." Dean said hoping he was right.

It turned out that Hermione would sleep through that entire day and through to the next morning.

* * *

Hermione finally stirred early the next morning, wrinkling her nose at the amount of dirt and the smell of smoke stuck to her.

"Hey! You're alive!" Dean yelled happily mouth full of breakfast.

"Yeah, just used a bit too much force behind those spells is all. Fine now." Hermione smiled at him stretching out.

"Well, Get ready. We're gonna hit the road soon" Dean told her.

"Of right, I'll get out of here as soon as I'm done." Hermione said slightly disappointed. She wasn't sure wat she had expected but she had somewhat hoped that Dean would want her to come along with them on hunts.

"You're coming with us right? Might be nice to have someone other than Sam around." Dean asked her jokingly.

"Oh, um. Sure. I'll just have to go off on my own sometimes to deal with the Ministry's jobs." Hermione smiled relieved. Dean actually seemed to be willing to try and make things work out between them.

"Didn't think we'd leave you behind, did ya?" Dean winked at her.

Hermione just got up and headed for the bathroom getting herself cleaned up from the remnants of the fire they had dealt with.

She smiled to herself noticing that Dean had taken the time to take off her shoes and had cleaned her up a bit as much as he could while still letting her sleep. Maybe this whole relationship thing really did stand a chance.

* * *

Hermione had been riding with them for a few weeks now and it had been an easier transition than any of them had imagined. However, now that they guys had found case that Hermione couldn't help with she figured now was as good of a time as any to go back to East Hollow and sort out her home there.

The idiots had actually gone and gotten themselves arrested. On purpose.

Sam and Dean had just heard of a case where they would have to go undercover into a men's prison and try to figure out what had been killing inmates.

Since Hermione had no desire to help them out on getting themselves arrested and put into jail she left.

Hermione had apparated back to her home in East Hollow while the boys tried to get into the prison they needed.

She hated to admit it but her place had seen better days. It had been close to a month since anyone had made a trip there to take care of it and it was noticeable.

Hermione spent a long time cleaning the house from top to bottom, even with magic it took her a significant amount of time.

She had just made it to the outside of the house, which was obviously taking longer since she couldn't use magic in public, when she heard a familiar voice.

"So, you are alive."

Hermione turned and couldn't help but feel a pit of guilt forming in her stomach for not really contacting her old friends other than a message saying she wasn't coming back.

Adam stood at the edge of her lawn with Rachel, hands on his hips and a frown on his face.

"Adam, Rachel, Hey. I'm so sorry I haven't been in contact with you." Hermione instantly began apologizing.

"Oh relax, Mione. Its fine we were just worried about you." He instantly dropped the angry act and crossed the lawn to hug her.

"I didn't mean to worry you guys. Everything just happened so fast!" Hermione told them.

"What did happen? One day you were here and then suddenly poof!" Rachel asked her.

"Would you guys want to come inside? I can explain everything." Hermione asked two of the first friends she had made after leaving magic behind.

The three headed inside and Hermione explained what she had been doing for the last almost year to her friends, leaving out any mention of magic.

"I wish I'd get offered some government job that involved travelling around with two hotties." Adam grumbled.

"It's not all that glamorous, you know. Its crappy hotels and never staying in one place more than a week." Hermione laughed.

"So… Speaking of hotties, anything happen with the short one yet?" Rachel asked nudging Hermione.

"Maybe." Hermione admitted a brilliant shade of red.

"Dish, now! I need to live vicariously through you." Adam instantly perked up and wanted to hear everything about it.

Hermione spent the rest of her night reconnecting with her old friends and explaining nearly everything that had happened in her life since she had left.

* * *

The next morning Hermione made her way through her house trying to decide what she would do with it before finally giving up and going out.

She made her way through the town reacquainting herself with the place she had fallen in love with so long ago eventually making her way to the library.

She had to admit that she missed this place. It was nice being in a stable home and a familiar town that had welcomed her when she had needed to get away and be anonymous.

She had accepted the fact that she would never fully the escape the insanity that seemed to be ingrained into her life, but that didn't stop her from day dreaming once in a while about her normal life.

Hermione opened the large library doors and took in the familiar surroundings of the library that had been such a big part of her life.

She noticed that even though it had mostly stayed the same there were a few new additions to the space. There was an entirely new section, not of books, but of local historical pictures and objects.

Hermione figured they must have been expanding on their unofficial title as the town's visitor information centre.

"Can you please give up that fancy government job and come back here? We can bribe you with coffee and Adam's ridiculous stories." Rachel came up beside her.

"Some days I wish I could." Hermione laughed.

"Well you're welcome back anytime."

"As long as you promise not to disappear again!" Adam piped up from where he had been restacking a portion of the library.

"Thanks guys. I see you changed a bit in the last year." Hermione pointed at the displays she had been looking at.

"Yeah. Mrs. Steigman decided to get rid of some of those antiques she's been hoarding for years. Add a few artifacts from some of the old founder's houses around here and bam. We had a local history display." Rachel announced proudly.

"It's great!" Hermione said making her way through the various displays of local history.

"Yeah… great." Rachel didn't sound completely convinced.

"You don't sound too sure." Hermione laughed at her.

"It's good for the library, brings in some more traffic… It's just also been a giant pain in my ass." Rachel admitted.

Hermione was about to ask more questions about what Rachel meant when they heard a giant thunk followed by some very creative swearing from Adam.

"You okay Sweetie?" Rachel yelled to him from where they were standing.

Adam limped out from the rows of books holding an old tomb from one of the historical sections.

"First of all this is totally in the wrong spot. Second it just fell of the damn shelf for absolutely no reason and landed on my foot!" He whined the last part of his sentence.

"Oh just great. More weird shit." Rachel sighed taking the book and stomping over to put it back in its correct place.

"Lots of weirdness happening lately?" Hermione asked Adam with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Just since we got some of this old crap in here. I'm beginning to think we're being haunted." Adam laughed.

Hermione forced herself to laugh with him while her mind had only one thought at that moment.

Shit.

Just... Shit.


	22. Chapter 22

Jesus fucking Christ.

Why did this shit always seem to find her?

She had managed to live a normal life for a few years, but now it seemed like that was just not in the books for her anymore.

She had come back to East Hollow for a while to deal with her home and yet she hadn't even managed to make it a full 24 hours before some sort of weirdness began.

Hermione sat in her home and looked around. She had been managing just fine since leaving East Hollow after the Death Eater attacks, why was she bothered by this now?

She knew she should stop fighting the fact that her life seemed to be destined for the supernatural. Sometimes though, she really didn't want to. She wanted to bury her head in the sand and pretend that the things that go bump in the night weren't real.

She sighed and looked at the phone she held in her hand. Hermione wanted nothing more than to call or text Dean and talk to him about the fact that the library was probably haunted.

But stupid Dean had gone and gotten arrested.

You're a grown woman Hermione, you don't need to suddenly start running to Dean she reminded herself.

Hermione was so lost in her thoughts about her new found relationship that she actually jumped when her phone buzzed.

Wow. Some great hunter you are Hermione, getting scared by a phone.

Hermione finished chastising herself and read the message from Adam saying he and Rachel would be at the diner soon.

Shit. Shit shit shit.

Hermione had completely lost track of time and had forgotten she was supposed to meet her old friends at the diner soon.

She ran around the house gathering her things and getting herself presentable as fast as she could before running out the door and walking as fast as possible to the diner.

She reached the diner a short time later but the other two had still beat her there.

Breathing a little heavier than usual she fell into the booth beside Adam.

"Sorry! I'm late!" Hermione apologized in place of a greeting.

"Don't worry we've only been here a few minutes." Rachel told her.

"Oh good."

For the next while Hermione found herself allowing herself to pretend like she was a normal person and she had never left her life here to fight scary creatures.

I mean really who does that? What kind of person runs head first into a situation every sane person would run the opposite direction from?

Hunters apparently.

A notification on her phone brought her back to reality.

'Finished the case. Broke out of jail and laying low for a bit. Call you when we can.'

Hermione let out a sigh of relief, at least they had managed to get back out of jail once they allowed themselves to be caught. Hermione had been convinced she would be visiting Dean in jail for the rest of his life.

"Is that from Captain hottie?" Adam grinned at her.

"Maybe."

"Are he and his friend coming back here? His friend was cute too."

"No Adam, sorry."

"Damn." He pouted from across the table.

"So tell me more about what's been happening at the library." Hermione asked her friends.

"Ever since we got those stupid things from Mrs. Steigman things have ben weird." Rachel sighed.

"Weird how?" Hermione pushed.

"Like suddenly the library has all these random cold spots. I've had maintenance in to look at it and they can't find anything." Rachel told her.

"That's nothing!" Adam exclaimed from across the table "Like the book thing you saw when you came in? That happens all the time!"

"Really?"

"Mhmm." Adam said taking a drink "There's been weird electrical things going on too. Flickering lights and so on. Stuff gets moved around and nobody will own up to it. At first I thought Rachel was just playing games with me but she says it's not her."

"I thought the same about Adam, but obviously not." Rachel laughed.

"That's crazy." Hermione said not overly surprised.

The three finished at the diner and were about to leave when Hermione pulled Rachel aside.

"Hey, so I've been meaning to ask. I don't expect you to hire me back or anything, but would you mind if I come to the library tomorrow and help out a bit? I'm kind of bored in the house by myself and I'm not sure how long I can entertain myself." Hermione laughed.

"Of course! I told you we'd love to have you back!"

* * *

Hermione just made it onto her porch when her phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hey." Dean's voice came across the line.

"How was the case?" Hermione asked.

"Oh great, I got to fight with a guy called Tiny a couple times, but we got the case finished."

"I'm guessing Tiny wasn't so Tiny?"

"Not so much, dude liked his donuts. Anyways Sammy and I are heading out on another case already. Djinn it looks like, wanna join?"

Hermione sighed.

"I wish I could. I'm back in East Hollow, dealing with my house. Looks like there's a case at the library here." Hermione told Dean.

"East Hollow… Right. Ya know, sometimes I forget that you had managed the apple pie life for a bit." Dean laughed.

"Yeah. Seem to be destined for a crazy life though, even coming back here I managed to find a case." Hermione laughed.

"Yeah, I know the feeling." Dean chuckled dryly.

"I'll see you after though?" Hermione said hopefully.

"Of course. Whoever finishes their case first can join the other one." Dean half asked, half announced.

"Sounds perfect." Hermione agreed.

"Hey Mione?" Dean began.

"Yeah?"

"I…" Dean sighed "I miss you."

"I miss you too, Dean. I'll see you soon though." Hermione told him.

Hermione heard the phone die on the other end and hung up.

She let herself into her house and spent the rest of the night brushing up her memory of how to take care of a ghost. This seemed more like a Sam and Dean type of case than the type of ghost Hermione had gotten used to at Hogwarts.

Hermione read as much as she possibly could on the subject, finally falling asleep late that night in her armchair, the book she had been reading sliding to the floor with a thunk.

* * *

The next morning Hermione jerked awake and groaned at the soreness in her neck and back from sleeping in the chair.

Oh god, she was getting too old for this.

Hermione stood and stretched making her way up to her old bedroom to get ready for the day.

One nice thing about being back in her home was having access to all of her things and a nice clean bathroom.

Hermione found it almost alarmingly easy to slide back into the old routine she had of getting ready, getting coffee for everyone and then heading to the library.

Making her way through the doors to the library she took a minute to let the familiarity wash over her.

Rachel and Adam were behind the desk, the library was quiet as usual, and Hermione couldn't help the small smile that crossed her face at the familiarity of the situation.

Dropping off the coffees at the desk she thanked Rachel again for letting her spend time helping them out today.

"Honestly I'm glad you asked. With everything going on we can't get anyone else to stay working here."

"Anything in particular you want me to work on today?"

"Well, I was wondering if you still have all that knowledge of the area in your head?"

"Yeah I'm pretty sure I do." Hermione laughed.

"Good, we could use you for the new section then. There's a ton of stuff that hasn't been looked over yet. I'll show you where everything is."

Hermione spent her day going over the various items that had been donated to the library carefully taking notes on each item.

She knew that if there was a ghost problem here it was likely attached to one of the items that had been donated to the library.

She had also been hoping that she might be able to see some of the occurrences for herself if she was in the building more.

Hermione made it to almost noon before she saw anything happen. Hermione was in the employee's only section of the library when the lights began to flicker and the area became ice cold.

Hermione wrapped her sweater closer around her and took a look around the area but found nothing. Eventually giving up and heading back out towards the section she had been assigned to work on.

Walking past the many shelves of books she had almost made it to her destination when an entire shelf of books suddenly launched themselves off the shelf and landed on the floor.

"What the hell!"

"You'll get used to it. Soon it's just another annoying thing that you have to deal with around here." Adam told her as her began placing the books back on the shelf.

"Great." Hermione commented dryly.

Hermione began to help him replace the books while using the opportunity to take note of what exactly had been thrown to the floor. The entire shelf was about local history and the founding of East Hollow.

Great, not like she hadn't been able to gather that already from the actual items she had been dealing with so far.

Sighing Hermione went back to categorizing the donated antiques that were both in the displays and the ones that hadn't made it out yet.

A hairbrush here, a book there, a locket, a teapot, and so on and so forth.

Each item with its own history, each a possible link to whatever was happening here.

At the end of the day Hermione had a list the length of her arm to look into and a sense of dread for what amount of research that would mean.

* * *

Hermione's sat in her home and rubbed her eyes that were beginning to burn from the amount of reading she had done that night. She still didn't know what item would be connected to her haunting at the library but she was tired.

She made her way up to her room, and laid in bed. She was frustrated, very frustrated.

She had come here to deal with her home and so far she had no ideas about her house and a new case.

Great.

Ghosts sucked.

She hated ghosts.

Hermione finally managed to fall into a fitful sleep and the next morning went to the library on a mission.

Once she got her normal pleasantries out of the way she made her way to the shelf that all the books had fallen from yesterday.

Reading through the books as quickly as she could, she took note of any similarities between them and the items she had been given to categorize.

Hermione still had way more names than she was comfortable with. Heading to the local history section she grabbed any books that she knew mentioned the names she was looking into.

Dropping them onto the table she organized her thoughts and decided to go to the bathroom and then she would tackle her research.

Hermione had barely made it into the library's bathroom when it began.

The lights flickered and then went out.

Shit.

Hermione took out her phone for light and looked around. The water suddenly turned on in all the sinks, beginning to flood the room.

Hermione looked around the room, she still couldn't see anybody or anything else.

Hermione went to turn off the water in the sinks when she noticed the mirrors had been fogged up and a message was being written on the mirror two sinks over from her.

'SrsonaP' went in elegantly written letters from the top of the mirror vertically down to the bottom.

Hermione stared at the mirror for a while hoping for something more, what was there made no sense at all.

When nothing happened she left the bathroom annoyed and headed back to her table. She was pretty proud of herself for keeping it together so well dealing with this ghost so far. Maybe all the time she was spending with the Winchesters was starting to have an effect on her.

Sitting down at her table she pulled one of the closest books to her.

"Spill." Adam demanded sitting across from her.

"Huh?" Hermione eloquently asked.

"You've been asking lots of questions about all the weirdness. It's well… it's weird, hun."

"Oh, um yeah, just an interest of mine I guess, a little extra from all the history I look into." Hermione smiled at Adam.

"Yeah right. And you can call me Madonna." He called her lie.

Hermione sighed.

"Fine. This government job, it's not travel just for the hell of it."

"I got that." Adam rolled his eyes at her.

"I … look into things like this. Unexplainable things."

"Wait, like all those ghost hunter shows?" Adam said excitedly.

"Uhm Yeah, like that." Hermione gave him a small smile.

"How'd you get a job doing that? That's so exciting!"

"An old friend. They came to me after the whole murder thing at Beaufort. Offered me a job."

"Is that why you left so suddenly?"

"Yeah. It was a now or never kind of thing. I've been travelling around ever since, following things like this. Never thought I'd find one here though." Hermione laughed.

"I never thought my work would be haunted." Adam laughed.

"You're taking this all pretty well… I didn't think you'd believe it so quickly." Hermione said cautiously.

"Well when it's right in front of your face every day its hard not to." Adam shrugged.

"True enough." Hermione laughed thankful for his easy acceptance.

"So did you figure it out then? Who it is or was or whatever?" Adam asked eagerly.

"No not yet. It visited me while I was in the bathroom but all I got out of that was a scramble of letters."

"Gross." Adam scrunched up his nose.

"Not like that Adam! It ran the water and fogged up the mirrors. Left letters one of the mirrors." Hermione corrected Adam's reaction to Hermione's wording.

"Oh! Way less gross than I was thinking!" Adam reacted.

Hermione laughed and wrote down the letters she had been given.

"Mean anything to you?" Hermione asked pushing the sheet of paper across to him.

"No? Is this supposed to make some sort of sense?" Adam looked confused.

"No idea."

"Can I help with anything else?" Adam asked, "I've always loved ghost stories."

"Be careful Adam. These things can be dangerous. Right now I'm still looking for connections between what's happening and any of the antiques that were brought in."

The two spent the rest of their afternoon working on finding any connections between the two.

By the end of the day Hermione had pages and pages of notes, and still struggled to find a connection.

She sighed and picked up her phone.

She dialed Dean and hoped he would pick up for her to pick his brain on ideas.

When he didn't pick up she frowned and dialed Sam.

"Hey, Hermione. What's going on?"

"Ghost. I'm stuck on this case. How's the djinn?"

"Dean's out looking for it now, I'm researching."

"By himself? Is that safe?"

"He'll be fine, he's a good hunter. Don't tell him I said that though. What's going on with the ghost situation?"

"A bunch of weird shit started happening when all these antiques were donated to the library. Then it tried sending me a message but it makes no sense and now I don't know where else to look."

"What about the message? Why doesn't it make sense?" Sam asked, Hermione could practically hear the wheels start turning in his head.

"It was just random letters on a mirror. Nothing that I could make sense of."

Sam was quiet for a minute before answering.

"You know, Sometimes when ghosts try and communicate across to the living it gets… jumbled. Like their messages are scrambled, try looking at it like that." Sam advised.

"Like an anagram?" Hermione asked suddenly feeling stupid for not realising this already.

"Exactly."

"Thanks Sam. I tried calling Dean already and there was no answer. Do you think everything's alright?"

"He probably turned his phone off while he's out scouting the area. I'll get him to call you when he's back okay?"

"Sure. Thanks again." Hermione said before hanging up.

Taking out the jumble of letters she had written down she looked at it from a new angle.

'SrsonaP'

'SonarsP'

'Osrapns'

'Prsonas'

'parnoss'

'Parsons'

Parsons. The Parsons.

That was it!


	23. Chapter 23

I'm so sorry this has taken so long for me to write... but its here!

As always please review and let me know what you want to see.

* * *

Hermione and Adam stood staring at the home in front of them. A very old, very stately looking home. It hadn't taken her and Adam long to get there as it wasn't that far from her own and Hermione wasn't quite sure what to expect.

Hermione was lost in her own thoughts about what she was doing dragging Adam into the supernatural when he interrupted her thought process.

"We going in? Or just staring at it?" Adam asked impatiently from beside her. Hermione thought, not for the first time, that Adam was just a little too excited about a ghost hunt.

"Yeah, let's go." Hermione sighed and began the walk up to the front door.

The duo knocked on the door and waited anxiously for someone to come. Hermione stared up at the massive house, something about it gave her the creeps.

Hermione was about to turn around and leave, she had even gotten as far as telling Adam there was no one home, when the door finally creaked open.

"Yes?" an ancient looking woman asked as she peered at them from her side of the doorway.

"Hi, Mrs. Steigman?"

"Yes?" The old woman repeated.

"I'm Hermione, this is Adam you might remember him. We're from the library you donated all those historical items to." Hermione began to explain.

"Yes dear, what do you want?" The old woman asked sounding somewhat impatient.

"Well, we were hoping we could get some more information from you about some of the things you gave us?" Hermione asked.

"Fine. Come in." Mrs. Steigman shuffled off to the side to let them into her home.

Adam looked at Hermione with his eyebrows raised. He mouthed something to her that Hermione thought was 'Cranky old hag'.

Hermione just shook her head and tried not to laugh at him.

Shuffling her way slowly in front of them, Mrs. Steigman led them into a sitting room that smelled vaguely of cats and old money.

Hermione had always had a very comfortable lifestyle growing up but even she felt like she wasn't qualified to be in this house. The entire house, and Mrs. Steigman herself, just oozed the sense of aristocracy and generations of an established well to do family.

"What did you want to know? I gave the library a bunch of old stuff that was just sitting in the attic." Mrs. Steigman sounded annoyed about the whole thing.

"Sorry to be a bother Ma'am." Adam said dryly.

Hermione elbowed him subtly but hard and smiled at the woman. In Hermione's experience it never got you very far to be snippy with the one who you needed answers from.

"We were just wondering if you knew if any of the items had a, um… interesting past? Connected to the Parsons family maybe?" Hermione asked the woman.

"Well sure. The stuff I gave you has been around for generations, back to the founding of the town." Mrs. Steigman told her as if she should already know this.

"Great. Anything from the Parsons family specifically?" Adam pushed for more information.

Hermione shot him a quick glare before returning her attention to the old woman across from them.

"Well I'm not completely sure. I'm getting old dear, I don't remember everything I gave away. Those were things I hadn't looked at in years."

"I have some pictures, if that would help." Hermione dug an envelope out of her bag that held pictures of the items she had been given to work on.

Putting on the glasses that had been hanging on a string around her neck, Mrs. Steigman sorted through the pictures she was given.

Hermione and Adam looked at each other and waited for what seemed like ages. Sitting in the stuffy house with nothing but the sound of the old woman shuffling pictures and an occasional 'hmm' made it seem even longer.

"Well, I believe that this locket here belonged to the Parson's family. It was a family heirloom passed through the generations…." She handed Hermione the picture of the locket, "And the antique silver vanity set. Those are the only two I can say for sure had anything to do with the Parson's family." Mrs. Steigman handed her the rest of the pictures back and looked to them expectantly.

"Great. Thanks a bunch." Adam said standing up looking ready to run from the house.

"Just one more thing if you don't mind?" Hermione quickly interjected before Adam could run too far away.

"Yes, what is it dear?"

"Before donating the old items did you notice any flickering lights around here? Cold spots in the house maybe?"

"…No. What an odd question." Mrs. Steigman gave Hermione a look clearing telling her she was insane.

"Right. Sorry, we'll just go now." Hermione smiled at the old woman before heading to the door with Adam right behind her.

As soon as they exited the old woman's home Adam let out a giant sigh of relief.

"Okay, that house is super creepy and super old money judgey pants." Adam said with a disturbed look on his face.

"Definitely." Hermione agreed physically shaking herself to rid the discomfort she felt from being in the home.

"So what do we do now?" Adam looked at her expectantly.

"Well, now we know which items we need to look into. The locket and the vanity set tells me it's a woman we're dealing with, so, let's look into the women of the Parson's family and go from there." Hermione told Adam.

"Off to the library we go!" Adam set off down the road.

Hermione watched him for a moment in disbelief that someone was so excited to hunt down a ghost before setting off down the road behind him.

* * *

"Well, we know the Parson's lived in the Beaufort house in the 1900's right? Let's start with those books." Hermione tried to narrow down their research to make things go a little faster.

Hermione and Adam pulled a few of the history books that they knew covered some local history. After a couple hours of looking Adam began to fidget and whine, he reminded Hermione of a much more dramatic Dean when faced with research.

Hermione mostly ignored him until he dramatically dropped his head onto the table in frustration.

"Ghost hunting is boring!" he whined.

"Why don't you go get us some coffee?" Hermione offered him a chance to escape, and give herself some peace as well.

"Done!" Adam was up and out the door faster than she had ever seen Dean run away from research. And that was saying something.

Hermione herself was beginning to feel the soreness in her eyes and the strain from reading so much. She leaned back in her chair and rubbed at her eyes.

Something was sitting there in the back of her brain, she just knew it. She knew she had learned about the family in her time living in East Hollow she just couldn't remember what she needed.

She got up and made her way over to the displays of the items that were donated. The library was all but empty other than herself and Rachel who had been working in the stacks of the library re-shelving and organizing the books.

Hermione opened the case that held the locket and the vanity set, pulling the items out for a closer look, hoping to find anything that might give her some insight.

She slowly inspected the vanity set and found nothing. Dropping it in frustration she picked up the locket.

Turning it over in her hand she couldn't help but admire the beauty of the item. It was a beautiful silver piece with delicate engraving on both sides with a long silver chain.

Looking at the oval shaped locket she noticed there was more engraving on the back when compared to the front. It had been significantly worn down but to Hermione it looked like a set of initials had been engraved into the locket.

Hermione squinted and tried her best to make out the letters but eventually gave up in frustration. She managed to make out one of the three letters. It was a P.

Which helped her not at all since they already knew it was the Parsons.

"Shit." She muttered to herself in frustration.

Hermione dropped her elbows onto the top of the display case and held her head in her hands trying to think things through.

"Ta-da!"

A coffee cup was dropped in front of her face.

Hermione jerked her head up and looked at Adam.

"Hey! Maybe you can figure this out!" Hermione thrust the locket into his hands.

"Uh… What exactly am I supposed to be figuring out here?" He looked completely bewildered.

"There's initials on it. I couldn't decipher anything other than the P."

Adam just snorted and took the locket from her.

After squinting at it and holding the locket so close to his face Hermione was sure he was cross-eyed Adam dropped the locket back onto the counter.

"First of all, Gorgeous. I want one. Second of all, the first letter is an E." Adam said proudly.

"Nice!" Hermione was beyond excited to have a real idea of what was happening.

"So, do we know anything about an E Parsons?" Adam asked her expectantly.

Hermione had that niggling feeling in the back of her mind again. She knew she was missing something.

"Hey Adam, Do we still have that Parson's family tree around here?" Hermione had an idea.

"Um yeah, we have all the founding families. Why?" Adam was not following Hermione's logic.

"I want to see the names on it. Maybe it'll bring something up for me, I feel like there's something sitting in the back of my mind that will help and it's been driving me insane."

"…Sure. I'll go get it."

Hermione sat back down at her and Adam's research table and finally took the time to look at her phone.

She had 3 missed calls from Sam this morning. Hermione felt her heart constrict.

Something had to be wrong. Very very wrong.

Sam rarely called her, and never that many times in a row.

She was about to phone Sam back when the entire shelving unit behind her fell over into the next row knocking every single book to the ground.

Hermione jumped in her chair at the enormous amount of noise that had caused in an otherwise quiet library and Rachel came running over.

"Oh for the love of God. This is getting ridiculous." Rachel sounded so put out by everything that was happening around here.

Hermione's heart was still going a mile a minute when the air began to freeze around them.

"Seriously! First things fall over on their own now I need to bring myself a just-in-case parka to wear at work!" Rachel was still ranting as she began to pick up some of the fallen books.

"Oh thank God. I thought for sure you were crushed." Adam stood beside the fallen shelves staring at the pile of books.

"I'm fine Adam. It fell in the other direction thank god." Hermione stood up and looked at Rachel, "We'll help you clean this up then I think we're gonna head out."

Shooting Adam a look when he groaned.

"I'm pretty sure this ghost is onto us. We need to leave once it's cleaned up." She muttered to him quiet enough that she hoped Rachel didn't hear her and think she was insane.

* * *

Adam sprawled out the Family tree, which he had smuggled out from the library, onto the kitchen table at Hermione's house.

"Okay, look through it and take notes of any E women in the family. I really need to go call Sam back." Hermione told Adam.

"Ooh tell him I say Hello and they need to come visit." Adam grinned at her.

Hermione walked into the next room and tried to calm down before calling Sam. She had meant to call him back straight away after noticing his phone calls but getting nearly crushed by an angry ghost had distracted her.

She sat on the couch and dialed, her nerves getting worse and worse with each ring.

She had listened to the voicemails Sam had left her on the way from the library to her house. They had told her absolutely nothing other than "Call me."

Finally she heard the phone pick up on the other end.

"Sam!" Hermione nearly yelled into the phone.

"Hermione? Hey finally."

"What's going on?"

"Um, well. You know how we were looking into the Djinn?" Sam began.

"Oh dear God."

Hermione felt her stomach lurch into her chest and her brain began thinking of every imaginable situation that could have gone wrong.

"Yeah, Dean kind of... found it."

"Is he okay? Is he alive? What happened?" Hermione felt herself lose complete control over her brain to mouth connection.

"Well, it took me awhile to find him. I actually just found him. He's alive though, so that's good." Sam told her nervously.

"What do you mean he's alive though?! Is he okay? You didn't answer me!" Hermione heard herself become frantic.

"He was being held by the djinn. It basically poisoned Dean making him hallucinate his dream world…. He's alive but he's still working everything out of his system. He's been in and out of consciousness since I got him out of there." Sam told her.

"Oh Merlin I think I'm going to be sick." Hermione felt her stomach roll.

"I'm sorry Hermione. I never should have let him go hunt on his own, it's my fault her got caught." Sam sounded so disappointed in himself.

"You wouldn't have been able to stop him Sam. We both know that. Just tell me he'll be okay? It's not permanent damage right?" Hermione tried to console herself.

"He will be. I'd put him on the phone for you but he's still out of it." Sam told her.

"Should I come there? We kind of pissed off the ghost here but I can apparate there and back as much as I need to." Hermione was determined that she needed to go see them.

"No. Mione there's nothing you can do, okay? Stay there, you need to finish the case you found. Especially now if you've pissed off the ghost."

"But..."

"No!" Sam cut her off, "Stay there. Dean is going to be fine, I'll get him to call you as soon as he can, okay? There's absolutely no point in coming out here."

"Fine. Are you sure? Like I said I can be there right away."

"I'm sure Hermione. Stay. Get rid of your ghost."

"Please make sure Dean calls me. Right away."

Hermione hung up and took a minute to digest the news that Dean was hurt. It had been a long time since she had worried about anyone else like she was now. She wasn't used to it since Harry and Ron weren't getting into trouble every five minutes anymore.

Taking a deep breath to re-focus herself she went back to see how far Adam had gotten with his list.

"How many?" She asked him.

"Like 4. I'm bored, that was way too easy."

Hermione took the list from Adam and looked at the few names he had written down.

"Eva Parsons. Obviously!" Hermione was ecstatic that she had finally remembered what had been sitting at the back of her mind for the last week.

"Eva? How do you know?" Adam asked her perking back up.

"Eva was the one who killed her husband in the Beaufort Manor. No explanation for it." Hermione finally remembered what it was that had been sitting in the back of her mind the entire time.

"Oh, right. Went completely off her rocker and whacked her husband. They were the last ones in Beaufort right?" Adam tried to piece together what he knew about them.

"Right." Hermione confirmed. She was struggling to keep her mind on their case and found her thoughts constantly wandering back to Dean and if he was going to be okay.

"So… What next?" Adam had gotten tired of waiting for Hermione to make her way back to the present and interrupted her daydreaming.

"Now we need to figure out where Eva is now." Hermione told him.

"What do you mean where she is now? She's dead." Adam clearly thought Hermione had lost her mind.

She just gave Adam a look and waited for him to figure it out on his own.

"Oh! Gross!" Adam looked horrified.


	24. Chapter 24

Alright, finally got this chapter out! Hope you enjoy!

Please review and let me know what you think/want!

* * *

Hermione and Adam stood above the grave of Eva Parsons shovels in hand and a bag nearby containing salt and gasoline.

"So… Now we shovel?" Adam asked sounding far less enthused about this part of being a ghost hunter.

"Yup." Hermione began shoveling the dirt out of the way.

"You know I never considered a career as a grave digger before this." Adam mumbled as he began to dig alongside her.

"Never too late to start a new career path I guess." Hermione chimed in.

It didn't take long before the two of them hit something.

"I think I'm there!" Adam cried triumphantly.

"God I hope so." Hermione wiped her forehead.

The two of them pried open the lid and looked at the contents of the coffin.

"Gross! This is way less fun than it sounds you know." Adam scrunched up his face.

"Yeah well, let's just hope we can get this over with before her spirit shows up." Hermione told him climbing out of the grave they had dug.

"So do we gas first or salt first?" Adam asked holding one in each hand.

"Salt. I think." Hermione had never really noticed which one the boys usually threw into the grave first.

"So salt first, then gas, then flame?" Adam looked at her for confirmation.

"Yup." Hermione was beginning to get a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach and just wanted to get this done with.

Adam opened the box of salt and began pouring it into the now open coffin in the grave.

Hermione grabbed the can of gasoline and began pouring it into the grave as well.

"Look out!" Adam yelled at her, but it was too late.

Hermione threw the can of gas in the grave seconds before being thrown into a nearby headstone by the ghost of Eva Parsons.

"Quick! Set her on fire!" Hermione yelled at Adam from her position on the ground at the foot of a headstone.

Adam fumbled for the lighter for a second trying to get it lit. Hermione could see Eva beginning to sneak up behind Adam.

"Hurry! She's coming for you." Hermione tried to warn him.

Adam finally managed to get the lighter to work and chucked it into the grave as Eva dived at him.

Adam yelled at covered himself as Eva's spirit came at him and knocked him into another headstone.

"Why isn't she going away!?" Adam yelled at her, pain etched into his voice.

"I don't know! There must be some remains somewhere else." Hermione tried to think of where that might be.

Hermione noticed the bag sitting by the grave and crawled over to it. She had taken the locket from the library and brought it with them as a precaution.

She grabbed the bag which held the remaining salt and the locket and pushed it into the grave setting it ablaze.

Hermione pushed herself up using an adjacent headstone and looked to Adam.

Eva's spirit was encroaching on Adam when she stopped and a scream erupted from her as she exploded into flames before disappearing entirely.

Hermione sat back down and leaned against the headstone exhaustedly.

"That. Sucked." Adam yelled from his position laying a few graves away.

"Yep."

* * *

Hermione woke up the next morning and sat up gingerly. Getting out of bed she lifted her shirt and groaned at the assortment of colors that were blooming on her ribcage.

Great. That was gonna be a bitch to heal up.

Hermione had planned to spend her day at the library making sure they had truly gotten rid of the spirit that was causing the issues and trying to wrap up her life here in East Hollow.

She had loved the years she spent here however it was no longer practical for her to try and take care of the house when she spent so much of her time on the road either with the Winchesters or with her job for the Ministry.

Hermione was sitting at the main desk of the library talking to Rachel when Adam came in.

"I am never doing that again." He muttered to her as he passed by.

"Let's hope you never run into anything again." Hermione answered.

"So, how much longer are you staying?" Rachel asked deciding to ignore the strange conversation happening in front of her.

"Well. I just have to figure out what to do with my house. It makes no sense to try and keep it for myself anymore when I'm never here."

"Ya know. Adam's been looking for a new apartment, his place is just not working anymore." Rachel told her making a face at the thought of Adam's apartment.

"Yeah! How much for rent?" Adam asked her excitedly.

"Well, if it's for you I'd be happy if you just took care of it. No charge as long as the house is kept clean and maintained." Hermione said after taking a moment to think about it.

"Seriously? No more rent! Sweet!" Adam looked ecstatic.

"We can talk more about it later." Hermione told him thinking of the unexplainable magic aspects of her home.

Hermione's phone began to ring, the noise breaking the silence of the library.

Crap.

She grabbed her phone and tried to leave the library as quickly as possible so she didn't disturb anyone.

"Hello?"

"Mione. Nice to hear you." Came Dean's gravelly voice from the other end.

"Dean! You're awake." Hermione felt elated to hear Dean's voice again. She had been worrying about him ever since Sam had called to tell her about the accident.

"Yeah. Finally feeling back to normal, except mother hen here has been hovering like crazy." Dean sounded annoyed at being fussed over by Sam.

"Sam driving you crazy?" Hermione laughed.

"Batshit." Dean confirmed.

"Where are you guys going now?"

"Not sure. Sammy's looking into possible cases now. When are you coming back? Sam said you had a ghost problem."

"Yeah, we took care of it. Adam's going to rent my house so I don't have to worry about it anymore. Everything is all set here."

"That's great Mione."

"I'll come to you guys tomorrow. Okay?"

"Sounds perfect. I'll let Sam know we can't leave yet."

"I can't wait."

"Me neither, Bye Mione."

"Bye Dean."

* * *

Hermione was on the road early the next day. She had packed some necessities from her house and decided to drive to Sam and Dean instead of risking splinching herself with apparating.

Adam was all moved into her place and Hermione felt happier than she had in a long time.

It took her about 6 hours to get to Sam and Dean and once she made it there she found herself feeling a little bit anxious to see Dean again.

Hermione shook the negative thoughts from her head and parked next to the Impala in front of an old motel.

She knocked on the door to the room and looked around the parking lot. She knew the boys stayed in a lot of questionable places but this one may just top the list.

She barely registered the door opening before she found herself being pulled into the room.

"Nice to see you made it." Dean told her giving her a hug.

"I feel like I should be saying that to you." Hermione stepped back and punched him in the chest.

"Hey!"

"Quit going and getting yourself almost dead!" Hermione yelled at him.

Sam took that moment to butt in before their mini argument had a chance to escalate.

"Hey Hermione. How'd it go with the ghost?"

"It was alright. She got a bit pissy when we began to salt and burn her though. Threw me right into a headstone." Hermione grumbled rubbing the ribs she had had to heal.

"You alright?" Dean asked her.

"Yeah, Yeah I'm fine. All healed up already." Hermione reassured him.

"Good. Sammy found another case. Figured maybe we would head out once you're ready." Dean informed her.

"Sounds fine. Just let me clean up a bit before I have to get back into a car." Hermione laid down on the bed trying to ignore the fact that she really wasn't sure how clean it was.

"Where are we going anyways?" She asked Sam from her position stretched out on one of the beds.

"Small town in Wisconsin. Might be a case there." Sam told her evasively.

"Oh?" She said sitting up looking at him. "How do you know?"

"Well, see Sammy here has been a regular Miss Cleo lately with psychic visions." Dean told her sounding less than thrilled about it.

Truth was that Dean was tired of hiding Sam's freaky visions from Hermione. He knew Sam didn't want her to know about anything but Dean didn't feel right omitting something so important when he was trying to start a relationship with her.

"Wait, what? You've been having visions and didn't say anything?!" Hermione turned on Sam.

"It's not a big deal. Really, they've been helping us to help other people." Sam tried to defend himself.

"Good Lord, Could you sound anymore like Harry right now?!" Hermione smacked him on the arm beginning to get worked up.

"Hey!"

"You deserved it Dude." Dean told him unsympathetically.

"Harry used to get visions before we defeated Voldemort, Sam. He used to say the same thing. That they were helping us and it wasn't a big deal."

"And?" Sam asked when she stopped still not really seeing a problem with his visions.

"And they turned out to be the result of him having a piece of Voldemort inside his head. Those visions were the reason Sirius died, the reason I have this scar on my chest… Those visions were being used by Voldemort as a way to get inside Harry's head and give us false information." Hermione ranted at him.

"Oh." Sam looked away from her unsure of what to say.

"Yeah. Oh. In my experience if you aren't a seer and suddenly you start having visions, that's a very, very, bad sign." Hermione tried to explain to Sam.

"Do you think they might be connected to yellow eyes? The demon that killed my mom?" Sam asked her.

"Did he have an opportunity to impart some of himself into you? Voldemort left a part of his soul but it could be anything."

"He killed her in my nursery, so I guess it's possible." Sam told her.

Hermione sighed. Shit. She didn't want to have to tell Sam this.

"Then yes, these visions of yours are more than likely a result of some sort of interaction between you and the demon. They are not a gift."

"Fuck." Sam sighed. He still didn't want to believe that the visions he had been using to help other families could possibly be evil, but out of all of them he figured Hermione was the only one with any experience with visions.

"God damn it Sammy! I told you!" Dean yelled.

"Guys! Calm down. We don't know anything for sure yet right?" Hermione tried to reason.

Dean paced the room a few times breathing heavily trying to calm himself down.

"Fine! Let's go then. See where this crazy ass vision of yours takes us." Dean finally relented.

* * *

Hermione was in the back of the Impala lost in her own thoughts while Dean drove like a madman to some tiny little town based off of Sam's vision.

"I'm starving." Sam finally piped up over the sounds of Zeppelin coming from the stereo.

"I'll stop at the next thing we pass."

It took another hour before the saw a small restaurant just off the road.

"Sammy you go get the food. I want extra onions on mine."

"Dude. We've got to sit in the car with our extra onions." Sam whined.

Dean just grinned and asked for pie.

Hermione yelled her order to Sam and settled back into her seat.

She and Dean sat for a few minutes listening to the radio when it began to flicker in and out of service.

"What the hell." Dean muttered to himself playing with the dials.

"Dean…" Hermione nudged him, eyes glued to the restaurant.

There was no noise, no movement, no signs of life at all coming from the place.

"That can't be good." Dean said pulling out a gun from the glovebox.

Hermione scrambled out of the Impala and followed Dean into the restaurant.

They reached the restaurant and Dean stopped in the doorway, Hermione right behind him.

"Oh god." Hermione looked around.

Every person in the place was dead. They were in the kitchen, on the floor, in the booths. Everywhere.

The sight of all the blood and the smell of the dead bodies made Hermione's stomach churn.

"Sam!" Dean yelled making his way through the small building.

"Dean… Look." Hermione had gone to the other door and had ended up with some sort of yellow residue on her hands.

"Son of a bitch!" Dean yelled.

Hermione knew the residue was sulfur which generally signified that there was a demon around. She just didn't know what that meant for Sam.

"What do we do now?" she asked Dean.

"Bobby." Dean answered shortly.

He turned and headed for his car, Hermione quickly following behind him for fear of being left behind.

She got in and her butt barely hit the seat before Dean was peeling out of the parking lot at breakneck speed.

She knew he was worried about Sam but she was also convinced his driving was going to kill them both before they even got to Bobby's.

"Call Bobby. Tell him we're our way." Dean told her holding out his phone.

Hermione pushed his hand away and pulled out her own phone. She dialed Bobby and waited.

As the ling rang she tried to think of where Sam might be but came up completely empty. It hadn't been more than a couple of minutes between when Sam had gone in and when Hermione and Dean had followed.

She felt wrong sitting in the front of the impala. This was where Sam was supposed to be, not her.

Her musings were interrupted when Bobby finally answered her call.

"Hello."

"Bobby, its Hermione."

"Whats going on?" Came the hunter's gruff reply.

"I'm with Dean. We're on our way to you right now. Sam has gone missing." Hermione told him quickly.

Bobby was quiet on the other end for a minute before heaving a deep sigh before saying what Hermione had been dreading.

"It's starting..."


	25. Chapter 25

Woo! Two updates in a week! I even managed to get the next chapter partly written already so hopefully the next update will be here soon.

Please let me know what you think! I really appreciate all the follows and favorites as well as reviews this story has gotten.

Considering this is my first fic I'm truly amazed by all the love it's been getting so thank you to everyone who's been reading.

xx

* * *

Hermione, Dean, and Bobby ran full tilt into the old ghost town.

Dean had driven them here in record time after Bobby had figured out where Sam was from Dean's sudden visions.

Dean had been an angry mess ever since the disappearance. Hermione being around had managed to calm Dean down a bit, just enough to keep him in the realm of rationality, but Sam being missing was driving him crazy.

They had been in contact with everyone that could possibly help them track Sam down for the last few days he had been missing. Dean desperate for any sort of answers. He had always felt it was his job to take care of and look out for Sam so having him go missing was devastating.

The three of them ran past buildings Dean yelling out Sam's name trying to track him down. Bobby and Hermione had fallen a little behind Dean who seemed to be powered up just by his sheer willpower.

"Sam!" Dean yelled out when they ran out from around a building into the main part of the town.

"Dean! Hey!" Sam answered seeing his brother come around the corner a smile beginning on his face.

Hermione could see a relieved look begin on Dean's face before it disappeared completely only to be replaced by a look of horror.

"NO!" Bobby roared.

"Sam look out!" Dean yelled out at the same time.

Hermione rounded the corner just in time to see Sam, and a man coming at him from behind with a knife. Hermione stopped dead and tried to pull her wand to help stop the man with the knife but she was too late. She looked up and watched in fear as the young man in the uniform shoved the knife into Sam's back.

Dean's yell as he ran towards Sam rang in Hermione's ears as Bobby took off after the man who had stabbed Sam.

Dean reached his brother just as he dropped to his knees.

Sam's body had gone slack, eyes rolling back into his head as he swayed on his knees.

Sam let out a very faint gurgled "Dean" before falling over.

Dean grabbed his brother while Bobby still ran trying to catch up to the other young man.

"Sam! Oh my god." Hermione fell to her knees beside the brothers.

"It's going to be okay, Sam. Alright? It's not even that bad." Dean tried to tell his brother voice breaking with emotion.

Hermione tried firing out any healing spell she could think of.

"Sam. Sammy!" Dean yelled as Sam went limp.

"No. no no no no no." Hermione felt tears rolling down her face as spell after spell failed to heal Sam.

Eventually she ran out of spells and just sat tears falling at the loss of Sam. Bobby eventually returned from his failed attempt at catching the guy with the knife and he too sat down and allowed a few stray tears fall.

Hermione and Bobby moved over to the porch of a nearby building to give Dean some room to grieve.

Dean sat on the ground with Sam's lifeless body in his arms as long as Bobby allowed him to.

Hermione sat on the porch of one of the old buildings nearby feeling numb. She wasn't used to failing, not when it mattered. This time she had though, and Sam was dead as a result.

She heard Dean's gut wrenching yell over and over again in her head, a reminder that Sam was gone.

Eventually Bobby pried Sam out of Dean's arms and took him into a building laying him out on the table telling Dean that at the very least they should get off the ground and out of the dirt.

Bobby and Hermione tried talking Dean into burying Sam's body but Dean was having none of it. He hadn't allowed either Hermione or Bobby anywhere near Sam's body since they had brought him inside.

After a while out of desperation they even tried using the fact that there was obviously something massive happening with the demons and yellow eyes which did nothing but make Dean even angrier.

Dean began yelling at Bobby and even went as far as physically shoving Bobby away telling him to go. Which Bobby did. He would take a lot from those boys but even Bobby had his limits.

Hermione took her turn trying to comfort Dean, hoping she would have a better chance because of the different relationship she had with Dean. She had spent every moment since Sam had gone missing by Dean's side.

Now, Dean wouldn't even let her touch him. He wouldn't even look at her.

It almost hurt worse when he wouldn't look her in the eye and said in a deadly calm voice that it was her fault Sam was dead. That Hermione should have been able to save him, what good was magic if she couldn't even help when he needed it the most?

Hermione tried to explain the way that magic couldn't stop death once it was too late. There were limits to what she was able to do.

The response Dean gave her rang in her ears for hours.

"You should leave. I don't want you here. You're no help to us, no help to Sam. Just get out of the way."

Hermione knew his words came from a place of despair. The place that had just lost the only person Dean had left, but they still stung.

Hermione turned and left the room following Bobby.

Dean may not want her help right now, but maybe she could help Bobby with the shit storm that was heading their way.

Anything to distract her from the fact that Sam, who had become one of her favorite people, was gone.

* * *

Dean waited until Hermione and Bobby left before running out to his car.

They would never have allowed him to do this. He had had to get rid of them.

He knew he had managed to hurt the last two people on this earth who cared about him, but at the moment he couldn't bring himself to care. Sammy was gone and Dean couldn't deal.

He drove away from the town and out to a nearby crossroads car losing traction on the gravel roads multiple times.

Grabbing the items he needed he put them in a tin box and using his hands he dug a hole and buried them in the middle of a crossroads.

Dean stood and began desperately turning and looking in every direction as he waited for someone to show up.

"Show your face already you bitch!" he shouted in desperation.

"Easy sugar, you'll wake the neighbors." Dean heard a woman's voice from behind him.

Turning around he saw a woman in a black dress, her eyes flashed red for a minute before she continued speaking.

"Dean. It is so, _so_ good to see you. I mean it. Look at you. Gone and got your family killed, driving away the others who cared about you. All alone in the world. It's too sweet. Excuse me, you're gonna have to give me a moment" the demon closed her eyes as though she was truly enjoying his suffering.

"I should send you to hell." Dean growled.

"You should. But we both know you won't. You're following in daddy's footsteps, you want to make a deal." The demon grinned at him.

"Just bring Sam back. 10 years and my soul is yours, I just want Sam back." Dean knew he sounded desperate but he didn't care. Anything to get his brother back.

"You're joking right?"

Well that was not what Dean had been expecting.

"That's the deal you guys give everyone else…" Dean was confused.

"Ah, but you're not just anyone, Dean. Not by a long shot."

Dean felt his stomach sink into his boots.

"Eight years then." He bartered.

"Nope." The demon inspected her nails with a bored look.

"Fine. Five years. Half what everyone else gets?" Dean tried again.

"No deal Dean. You might want to go bury Sam before he starts to stink." The demon laughed starting to walk away.

As Dean watched the only chance he knew his brother had walk away he knew he would give whatever it took for Sam to be alive again.

"What do I have to do?" Dean finally asked.

"Stop groveling first of all. It's not a good look. I shouldn't give you a deal at all, I can get in a lot of trouble." The demon mused circling him.

"But…" Dean pushed.

"I'll do it." She grinned at him giving Dean the chills.

"You'll bring Sam back?" Dean asked to clarify.

"I will. And I'll even give you a year…. But just the one."

"Fine." Dean agreed hastily.

"But, any attempt on your part to weasel out of this deal in any way, and Sam drops dead."

"Done." Dean jumped at the deal.

The demon grabbed his face and planted a kiss on his lips to seal the deal.

It was at that point that Dean's mind compared the feel of the cold lips of the demon to Hermione's.

Shit. Hermione.

Dean didn't know how to explain this to her. He could admit to himself that he was in love with the witch but his entire life had been spent watching out for Sam.

Maybe he wouldn't even have to explain it to her. He had been a Grade A dick to her and Bobby, he'd be surprised if either of them stuck around after what he said.

* * *

Hermione and Bobby were sitting in his house looking into various demonic omens and the event surrounding the fire at the Roadhouse that had killed Ash and Ellen.

Hermione and Bobby were both still stinging from Dean's words and had thrown themselves into research as a way to cope. They hadn't talked about it, but Hermione could tell the old hunter was hurt by Dean's words.

He had always thought as Sam and Dean as sons and for Dean to tell him to leave when Sam died had crushed Bobby.

Hermione looked up from her reading giving her eyes a quick break from the strain of reading when there was a knock on Bobby's door.

Bobby had gone into the kitchen for beer so she went to see who could possibly be coming to Bobby's at such a shit time.

Hermione opened the door and her heart stopped.

"Sam!" she threw herself into his arms giving him a hug that probably should've crushed him.

"Hey 'Mione." Sam hugged her back.

"I'm so happy you're… okay." Hermione told him as she released him, she had a feeling Sam hadn't been informed of the fact that he had been dead and didn't think she should be the one to drop that particular bomb on him.

"BOBBY! Get in here!" She yelled into the kitchen unsure how to deal with this. She was beyond thrilled to have Sam back but she didn't even want to think of what that meant for Dean.

She could see Dean trying to catch her eye but steadfastly ignored him, despite Sam's questioning looks.

Bobby finally came into the room and nearly dropped the beer he had been holding.

"Sam. Good to… see you up and about." Bobby greeted him as the boys made their way into the house.

"Yeah, Thanks for patching me up." Sam answered Bobby, which also simultaneously answered the unanswered question Hermione and Bobby had both been wondering about.

"Right." Was all Bobby said shooting Dean a dark look that clearly told him they would be having a talk later.

"So, Sam's alright and we're back in the game now." Dean tried to avoid the topic. "What've you got?" Dean asked expecting to be filled in.

Hermione stared at him in incredulity while Bobby looked ready to murder him. The room sat in silence for a beat before Hermione spoke.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." Hermione said before slamming her book down and walking out to the salvage yard.

Sam looked completely bewildered before Bobby just sighed and started talking and filling them in on all the omen's he and Hermione had been finding.

* * *

Bobby told Sam to look over all their research in case they had missed anything while he and Dean went out to his truck to 'get more books.'

Bobby grabbed his coat and led Dean out into the salvage yard where Hermione had previously stormed out to.

Dean followed Bobby with a sick feeling in his stomach knowing he would now be forced to fully confront what he had done.

Hermione jumped when she heard the two of them come out to where she was sitting. She had been lost in her own thoughts she hadn't heard them until they were already out on the porch with her.

"You stupid ass! What did you do!?" Bobby yelled turning on Dean almost instantly.

Dean was silent. Hermione watched as Dean avoided looking at the emotions crossing Bobby's face and answered for him.

"He made a deal. For Sam." Hermione said coldly, she still couldn't believe that someone would be willing to throw away their own life.

"How long?... HOW LONG?!" Bobby roared.

Dean tried to avoid looking at either of them when he answered. He knew they wouldn't let him avoid the question so he answered despite knowing what would be the reaction.

"One year."

"God damn it." Bobby said, voice breaking.

"I got nothing to lose now… That's why I'm going to kill yellow eyes myself."

"Yeah, you've made sure of that haven't you?" Hermione glared at him when he said he had nothing to lose.

"Mione…" Dean's voice broke, he hadn't meant that. Not really.

"No! I don't want to hear it." Hermione told him. Hair literally crackling with magic.

Hermione had always had a hard time controlling her magic when she was truly angry and this time was no different. The air around her was charged, her hair crackling, Dean even swore he could see the car near them shake.

"You've thrown everything you had away. You are so screwed up you don't even realize what you've done." A window in one of the nearby trucks shattered into pieces at Hermione's words.

"What do you think Sam is going to do when he finds out?" Bobby asked trying to give the witch a chance to get her magic under control.

"He can't know. I don't want him to feel the same guilt I do after Dad sold his soul for my life." Dean said desperately.

Bobby began to let the tears he had been holding back fall.

"Funny. You say you feel guilty yet you have no problem throwing away the life John gave you." Hermione laughed hollowly from her position where she had leaned against one of the vehicles hands on the hood.

Dean opened his mouth to respond when they heard a clattering noise.

The three of them put their argument on hold and hid behind a car waiting to see what walked up. These days with the amount of demonic activity one could never be too careful.

Sam had filled them in on the reason yellow eyes had taken him to the ghost town. All the children with special abilities that yellow eyes had shared his blood with, a survival of the fittest type of scenario occurring in the town between them.

Hermione didn't recognize the woman who walked up but Bobby and Dean must have. They both grabbed her into a hug instantly before taking the older woman inside for a shot of Holy Water.

Hermione followed inside thinking maybe this was Ellen? She seemed to match the description she had been given.

* * *

Ellen sat at the table in Bobby's kitchen, after her shot of Holy Water confirming it was really her, and looked at the four faces across from her.

Ellen had explained how she had left the roadhouse in order to get more pretzels of all things when the place had caught fire and that she was the only one who survived.

Hermione and Ellen had finally had a chance to introduce themselves to each other before Ellen pulled out the papers on what Ash found just before his death.

Ash had managed to discover that Samuel Colt had built the ultimate Devil's trap a very long time ago. One hundred square miles, built from five churches and miles upon miles of iron railways connecting them.

The trap explained many of the omens, demons were circling trying to get in but unable to cross the iron lines Bobby guessed out loud.

Hermione had stayed silent, just listening, while the rest of the hunters tried to figure out why Colt would have built a trap that size. After hearing the ideas quickly deteriorate to some which were absolutely asinine she finally piped up.

"What if he wasn't trying to keep the demons out? He was trying to keep something in." She spoke to Bobby and Ellen still ignoring Dean.

"Comforting." Ellen replied giving her a small smile.

From there it didn't take the hunters very long to figure out that Jake, the one who had stabbed Sam, was being used by yellow eyes to get inside the trap. That had been the goal for the survival test in the ghost town, for yellow eyes to get someone inside the trap to do his dirty work.

While Bobby and Ellen were strategizing, Dean tried to get Hermione's attention. Finally giving up on being subtle, Dean crossed over to where she was sitting.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Dean asked her.

"No." Hermione said coldly flipping through some of the research Ellen had brought with her.

"Please, Mione. Let me explain." Dean said lowly trying to keep Sam from hearing.

"Dean, Don't. I can't hear this right now" Hermione said flatly.

She truthfully was struggling with the idea that in a year Dean would be in hell, but he had made it perfectly clear that he had nothing holding him here. That she was nothing, Hermione was left with the distinct feeling that their relationship had meant one hell of a lot more to her than it had to him.

Maybe it was selfish of her, but she had hoped that maybe she had at least been enough to give him pause before selling his soul. However she knew by what Dean had said when he was explaining earlier that their relationship hadn't even crossed his mind.

That gave her enough information right there to know what she meant to him. She never expected to be more important to him than his brother, but she hadn't expected to mean so little either.

Dean watched Hermione for a few more minutes, heart sinking further and further as she refused to even look his way. The coldness of her voice giving him goosebumps.

He wouldn't apologize for bringing Sam back, he had no doubts about that, he just wished he hadn't thrown away the only other person in his life that he had truly loved.

He knew he had had a chance at something truly amazing with Hermione, now he had just one year. Likely one year in which Hermione would want nothing to do with him and Dean had no one to blame but himself.

Dean finally sighed and left to join Bobby and Ellen while Sam watched on in confusion.

What had happened in the short amount of time he had been hurt between Dean and Hermione?

Why was she so angry?

And why was Bobby shooting Dean alternating murderous and pitying looks?


	26. Chapter 26

Oh Man, I am so so sorry for the delay. Turns out the last semester of a university degree is way busier than I ever imagined. But here it is! Finally!

As always, review and let me know your thoughts.

* * *

The hunters all positioned themselves strategically around the old cemetery that lay in the middle of the giant devils trap and waited for Jake to show.

After what felt like ages, they heard someone making their way through the grounds and up to an old mausoleum. Each hunter took the moment to make sure they were out of sight but still able to make a move when it was necessary.

Once Jake got close to the big iron doors of the mausoleum, the hunters stepped into action.

"Hi Jake." Sam said as all the hunters revealed themselves, guns pointed in his direction.

"I killed you…" Jake looked at Sam like he'd seen a ghost.

"Yeah? Next time you should probably finish the job." Sam replied.

Hermione, Dean, and Bobby all felt their hearts freeze for a second as Jake answered.

"I did. I cut clean through your spinal cord man. You just can't be alive." Jake told Sam still clearly confused as to how Sam was before him.

Sam looked quickly to Dean before looking back to Jake. Jake's words had made Sam unsure.

"Take it easy son." Bobby called out trying to refocus everyone.

The verbal sparring went on a bit longer before Jake somehow managed to make Ellen turn her own gun against her head just by telling her to.

Jake laughed at the looks on the hunters' faces as he explained that the yellow eyed demon had helped him expand his abilities over the last few days.

Jake made the remaining hunters put their guns down before quickly turning and putting the colt into the lock on the mausoleum door.

He turned the colt in the lock, just seconds before Sam shot him in the back.

Sam walked up to Jake's body and shot him four more times even though he was already dead.

The lock on the door kept spinning drawing the attention of the hunters away from what Sam had just done.

Dean stared at Sam in disbelief as the rest watched the door's lock quit spinning before Bobby swore.

"Take cover. Now!" Bobby yelled.

Everyone ran and hid behind gravestones.

Sam and Dean behind one grouping, Hermione Ellen and Bobby behind another.

"What the hell just happened?" Dean yelled out from his hiding spot as tendrils of thick black smoke filled the air.

"That's a god damned Devil's Gate! A door to hell!" Ellen yelled back to him.

The smoke filled the air, and managed to break the iron of the railways, effectively breaking the devils trap, freeing the smoke filled with demons to go wherever they pleased.

"We need to close those doors!" Ellen yelled.

Sam and Hermione took one door while Ellen and Bobby took the other.

They pushed for all they were worth but didn't get very far before Sam looked around and noticed that Yellow Eyes had thrown Dean into a headstone.

Sam let go of the door and ran towards Dean leaving Hermione to struggle with the weight of it on her own.

Sam didn't get very far before Yellow Eyes had him pinned to a tree.

"I'll get to you in a minute, champ. But I'm proud of you— knew you had it in you." The demon spared a look to Sam before turning back to Dean.

"So, Dean... I gotta thank you. You see, demons can't resurrect people… unless a deal is made. I know, red tape— it'll make you nuts. But thanks to you, Sammy's back in rotation." Yellow eyes laughed, "Now, I wasn't counting on that, but I'm glad. I liked him better than Jake, anyhow. Tell me— have you ever heard the expression, "If a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is?"

"You call that deal good?" Dean asked snarkily, unwilling to believe that he had walked into a trap of sorts.

"Well, it's a better shake than your dad ever got. And you never wondered why? I'm surprised at you. I mean... you saw what your brother just did to Jake, right? That was pretty cold, wasn't it? How certain are you that what you brought back, is 100%, pure, Sam?" Yellow Eyes rambled as he wandered back and forth in front of Dean.

Sam watched the conversation taking place in horror, everything was falling into place for him now. Hermione's anger, Bobby and Jakes shock, Dean's strange behavior. It all made sense. He felt his stomach heave in the knowledge that Dean had made a deal with a crossroads demon for him.

"You of all people should know, that's what's dead, should definitely stay dead. Anyway... thanks a bunch. I knew I kept you alive for some reason. Until now, anyway. I couldn't have done it without your self-destructive desire to sacrifice yourself for your family." Yellow eyes seemed absolutely giddy at the idea that he would finally get to kill Dean.

Yellow eyes now had the colt in hand and he pointed it at Dean.

Just as he was about to fire, Hermione looked to see how Sam and Dean were faring with the demon. Seeing Yellow Eyes with a gun trained on Dean she pulled out her wand.

Hermione fired a spell their direction, missing her intended target as the door she was leaning against gave a particularly hard push back, but hitting the ground in front of yellow eyes, big chunks of turf flying up like projectiles causing the demon to break focus for a split second.

Dean covered his head from the debris flying through the air and took his chance to dive at yellow eyes' feet. Sam began yelling an exorcism from where he was pinned to the tree.

Yellow Eyes wrestled his way back into control of the body he was possessing but it was too late. Dean had already grabbed the colt and pointed it at Yellow eyes, this time Dean didn't hesitate. He pulled the trigger and a bullet from the colt hit the demon between the eyes.

The body flickered a few times before falling to the ground, finally truly dead.

At the same time the doors to hell finally closed with a loud bang. Hermione, Ellen, and Bobby all collapsing in exhaustion against them.

Sam fell from where he had been pinned against the tree.

"Well. That's been a long time coming." Dean said trying to delay the inevitable conversation he knew he had to have.

"We did it." Sam said clearly relieved. "Finally, we got him."

* * *

The five hunters regrouped back at Bobby's house, all with varying levels of injuries but surprisingly no one had been badly hurt.

They had been discussing yellow eyes and the doors to hell, and what could have possibly been unleashed while the doors were open when Sam couldn't hold it in anymore.

"Jake said he killed me…. What happened after I was stabbed?" he asked interrupting everyone's conversations.

Bobby sighed.

Ellen looked between the other four confused, no one had had the time to let her know that Sam was meant to be dead.

Hermione looked at Sam sympathetically resting a hand on his shoulder before turning her eyes to Dean in a challenging look.

"I already told you what happened." Dean tried.

"I want the truth Dean… I died, didn't I?"

Dean tried not to answer.

"Hermione? Bobby?" Sam asked.

"Yes, you did." Hermione confirmed.

"Dean… Did you sell your soul for me? Like Dad did for you?" Sam's voice broke.

Dean's refusal to meet his eyes answered the question for him.

"How long?" Sam asked Dean.

When he didn't get an answer he tried again.

"I said how long?!"

"One year." Bobby told Sam when it was clear Dean wasn't going to.

"Jesus Dean!" Sam whirled on him, unable to believe that his brother could be so stupid but at the same time finding it all too easy to believe.

"Don't. I did what I had to do." Dean began.

Hermione made a noise somewhere between a snort and a scoff before turning on her heel and walking out of the room wiping the tears from her face.

"What about me? Hermione? Bobby? Did you even think what it would be like for us, knowing you're going to hell?"

"I did this for you Sammy!" Dean yelled back at Sam.

"Boys!" Ellen yelled interrupting, "While I understand that this is important, what's done is done. Maybe for now we can focus on hunting down all the hundreds of demons that were just let out of hell?"

"Yeah. Okay," Sam began, "but I will do whatever it takes to get you out of this deal Dean. You can count on that."

Sam turned and began to leave the room.

"Where are you going?" Dean asked.

"I thought one of us should maybe check on the girl you supposedly love but threw away your life with." Sam said in a cold tone Dean hadn't heard from him before.

* * *

Sam made his way outside trying to control his own anger at Dean.

Hermione had managed to hold it together pretty well up to the time she stormed out. Sam knew he wouldn't have been able to go as long as she had without completely losing it.

He wandered out into the salvage yard trying to figure out where the witch had gone to.

Sam finally saw her sitting on the ground, leaning back against an old car. She had visible tear tracks down her face, and Sam couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt that Dean had given up a life with her to bring him back.

Sam sat on the ground beside her.

"Hey." He said softly.

"Oh, Hey Sam." Hermione opened her eyes and looked at him.

"I just wanted to say sorry for Dean."

"You don't have to do that Sam. I'm sorry I've been so angry… I'm so happy you're back, I just… I can't…" Hermione let out a frustrated breath at her inability to vocalize her thoughts. It wasn't often that words escaped her like this and it scared her that she cared enough about Dean for it to happen now.

"I know… Me too." Sam saved her from the struggle of finding the right words, he felt the same way.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, absorbing the reality that Dean really had sold his soul for Sam.

"Do you think I'm being ridiculous?" Hermione asked suddenly.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked confused.

"Am I being awful to Dean? He just sold his soul and agreed to go to hell. His entire life's just gone tit's up…."

"I don't know Mione. I'd be more surprised if you weren't upset and angry with him… I think you both just need some time to figure it out."

"Right…" Hermione sniffed back the last few tears and tried to control herself.

"Well, I suppose I'm not doing any good out here now am I?" Hermione tried to regroup herself, "let's go figure out how to track down some of the hell on earth we just unleashed."

"Yeah. I guess we should." Sam sighed standing up and offering her a hand up.

Taking his hand Hermione couldn't help herself.

"Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"You know I'm not going to stop until I can figure a way out of this mess for Dean, right?"

"I know, Mione. Thank you."

Hermione gave Sam a small smile before turning and heading inside.

Sam gave himself a minute before following Hermione back into the shitstorm that they were suddenly in the middle of.

* * *

Making her way back into the house, Hermione took the short walk to compose herself.

She could hear Sam get up and follow in her footsteps up onto the porch.

She stood on Bobby's porch and just stared at the door. She couldn't help a small flush of embarrassment at her behaviour earlier.

Hermione wasn't usually one to let emotions control her, yet she had yelled and stomped out like a child.

"So. We going in?" Sam eventually asked when he got tired of staring at the door.

Hermione heaved a sigh and looked at Sam.

"S'pose I'll have to eventually wont I?" She said with a small smile.

"We've all been there Hermione. They won't hold it against you, you know."

"Right, Let's go." Hermione said, opening the screen door.

Bobby and Ellen who were bent over some maps in the kitchen, looked up when they heard the door close.

"You okay?" Bobby asked Hermione quietly.

"Yeah. I'll be just fine. Thanks Bobby."

"So. Where do you want us to start?" Sam asked the two older hunters.

"Grab a map, grab a book, grab your laptop. We've got demons to find." Ellen tossed them one of the maps they had been marking omens on.

* * *

The group of hunters spent the next week looking into various omens and a handful of cities that had been blanketed in a thick smoke the night that the devils gate had opened.

In between looking into that, Sam and Hermione had been up to their eyeballs in books about crossroads demons and deals. Dean had been ignoring the fact that his life was being counted down, day by day but Hermione and Sam hadn't been able to do the same.

They hadn't had any luck so far but that didn't mean that they would give up.

If anything, the more Hermione was denied answers the more she was determined to find them. She had never been very good at accepting that a book didn't hold the answers she needed somewhere.

Dean had gone to the other extreme of being as hedonistic as possible, convinced he should get every last drop of enjoyment he could out of life. He had spent night after night in the bars drinking and flirting.

Sam was surprised however that Dean never took any of the women home or to a hotel. Dean usually wasn't one to hesitate about sleeping with a pretty girl from the bar, but Sam had a feeling that Dean was still holding out hope for Hermione to forgive him.

Not that the two had spoken more than a few words to each other since the night the truth had come out about Dean's deal.

Every time Hermione was in a room working on omens or a deal and Dean walked in she would find some excuse to leave.

The few times she didn't get up and leave, she steadfastly avoided Dean's gaze and ignored the small attempts at conversation Dean made.

It had been weeks and Sam was beginning to feel worn out trying to keep things from imploding from the tension that happened whenever Dean and Hermione were in the same room.

Sam was seconds away from saying something to them when Hermione finally stood and walked over to where Dean was sitting.

"Are we talking now?" Dean asked her somewhat snappishly.

"I need to know the exact wording of your deal if I'm to look into getting you out of it." Hermione dropped a notepad in front of Dean along with a pen.

"'Mione… Please. Just talk to me about this." Dean asked her desperately.

Sam almost felt bad for Dean, watching the way Hermione was able to freeze someone out when she was hurt by them. Almost.

"The deal. Write it down please, Verbatim." Hermione asked again.

Dean looked like someone had kicked his dog before sighing and picking up a pen.

Hermione must have seen the absolute dejection that was written all over Dean's face and body language because she added on to her sentence.

"Maybe we can talk after." She said quietly.

Dean's head snapped up faster than Sam had ever seen, and began writing even faster than before.

Sam couldn't help but smile. Maybe they weren't back to normal yet, but this was definitely an improvement.


	27. Chapter 27

Okay, So I finally have a Chapter for you guys! So Sorry its been taking way too long for me to write, turns out moving across the country is a big task.

As always read/review/tell me what you want to see!

xx

* * *

Ridiculous.

That's all Hermione could think looking down at the deal Dean had written out.

 _You'll bring Sam back?_

 _I will. I'll even give you a year… but just the one._

 _Fine._

 _But, any attempts on your part to weasel out of this in any way, and Sam drops dead._

 _Done._

Hardly seemed like this crossroads demon was much of a professional to Hermione. As much as Hermione loved the boys, they truly had no idea what to look for when it came to getting out of a contract. Hunting sure, that they were great at but contracts not so much.

Years and years of getting Harry and Ron out of the sticky situations they always found themselves in had given Hermione loads of practice. While there really wasn't much to this deal to find wiggle room, Hermione was still hopeful that she would be able to find a way around it.

Clearly, the deal only stated that Dean wasn't allowed to try and get out of the deal as none of them wanted to see Sam die. Again.

It said nothing about others trying to end the deal for him. Therefore, Hermione's mind began churning with ideas on how they could try and get Dean out of his deal and if they should keep Dean completely in the dark or not.

If Dean knew but wasn't actively participating in trying to get out of the deal did that still void the deal? Did Dean have to be completely in the dark?

Dean and Sam on their part had been sitting and not so patiently waiting for anything from the witch. They had both been watching as Hermione intently scrutinized the words Dean had written out when she had asked.

So when Hermione suddenly shot out of her seat and ran up to the room she had been staying in at Bobby's Sam nearly fell off his seat at her sudden movement while Dean let out a "Jesus woman!"

Hermione paid them no mind running upstairs and beginning to search through everything she had brought with her.

"So does this mean you think you can help me?" Dean's voice came from behind her.

Hermione for the first time since Dean had made the deal heard a small amount of hope creep into his voice.

And it hurt.

Hearing that one little change in Dean was what really brought it home to her that even though Dean may have been putting on his devil may care act, that's all it was. An act.

Hermione suddenly felt very stupid for not seeing it before, blinded by her own anger and unable to see past her own pain. Dean wasn't uncaring and nonchalant about going to hell. He was simply doing what he did best. What he was brought up to do. Protect Sammy at all costs, even if the cost was himself.

Hermione must have been staring at him for too long without saying anything because Dean shrunk in on himself and mumbled a "forget I asked" before turning away from her.

"Dean wait!" Hermione suddenly blurted not wanting him to leave all of a sudden.

Dean turned back to her.

"I…" Hermione began but couldn't find the words. Frustrated with herself for being unable to voice what she was thinking she turned to a different method.

Dean's eyes grew wide when he suddenly found himself on the receiving end of Hermione's hug. He was surprised to say the least after so much tension and silence from her ever since she found he had sold his soul.

Reacting on instinct, he wrapped his arms around the small brunette that had recently launched herself at him.

"Um… Hermione?"

"I'll find a way." She mumbled into his chest.

Dean fell silent. He didn't want to allow himself to believe it yet, but he knew that if anyone could get him out of this mess it was Hermione.

Instead of replying, he simply held Hermione a little bit tighter. He felt her move in his arms and found that she had pulled her head from his chest and looked up to his face.

Dean opened his mouth to say something but found himself cut off by the feel of Hermione's lips pressed against his.

Moving past the shock and instead choosing to feel grateful that she seemed to be coming around to the idea that perhaps shutting him out for the very short remainder of his life was not the greatest plan dean responded.

Hermione moved the two of them backwards slowly, still connected at the lips, until they hit the edge of the bed.

Finally, Dean tore his mouth away from hers.

"I've missed you." he mumbled quietly.

"I missed you too." Hermione replied before grabbing fistfuls of Dean's shirt and pulling him with her as she fell backwards onto the bed.

Sam and Bobby sat in the living room listening to the noise from upstairs.

"Finally." Bobby commented before heading into the basement while Sam went outside to give the newly rekindled couple a shot at a private reunion.

* * *

Hermione laid with her head on Dean's chest listening to the steady rhythm of his heart.

"I'm sorry I've been absolutely terrible to you lately." She finally said breaking the silence the two had been laying in.

"Mione, stop. You don't have to apologize, I deserved all of it."

Hermione turned and looked at Dean. His green eyes already staring down at her. Hermione couldn't quite decipher the emotions she was seeing in them though.

"We should really get out of bed you know. There's so much I want to look into." Hermione told him.

"We should… but how about we don't." Dean replied pulling her closer wanting to take this moment and enjoy the time he had left with her.

* * *

Sam and Bobby had come back into the house to get back to work looking into not only Dean's deal but also the rapid increase in demonic activity after the devils gate fiasco.

Sam had his face glued to his laptop looking at what seemed to be a never ending amount of articles and news stories about strange happenings and mysterious deaths. Bobby was up to his elbows in newspapers with strange articles and lore on demons.

The room suddenly filled with the noise of a loud echoing "CRACK!"

Bobby's book fell on the floor as the older man jumped at the unexpected noise. Sam's head jerked up from the laptop and his face filled with shock as he took in the new occupant in Bobby's living room.

"Hullo Sam!"

"Harry? What are you doing here?"

"Hermione sent me an owl regarding Dean and a deal he made concerning his soul? I'm here to help." The dark haired wizard smile at him as he took in the room.

"So where are they? And what the devil happened in here?" Harry asked after a moment taking in the stacks of books and papers cluttering every imaginable surface in the room, not to mention the maps and pages stuck to the walls.

Bobby cleared his throat "The lovebirds are upstairs uh… Gettin' reacquainted. This here is all research on everything that's been goin on lately."

The two hunters saw a slight blush creep up across Harry's face.

"Oh."

Sam got up and walked to the end of the stairs.

"Hey you two! Hermione's got a visitor down here!" He yelled up to the top floor.

Satisfied once he heard some movement from the upper floor of Bobby's house he went back into the other room and informed Harry that they would be down shortly.

The sound of footsteps coming down the stairs drew the attention of the three men as Hermione and Dean came into view.

Bobby and Sam both seemed to sag a little in relief as they saw Dean come in looking more himself than he had in weeks.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed as a wide grin broke out across her face, "You came!"

"Of course I did! You said you needed my help."

"Right well, let's get to it then shall we?" Hermione's grin faded a bit as she began to feel the stresses of the reality the group was facing.

"So what's happening? You said something of a deal Dean made?"

"Let's have a seat before story time begins. Even after the things we've seen this one is a bit much." Hermione pulled Harry over to the couch.

One seated Hermione took a moment to gather her thoughts and began to fill Harry in.

"About a month ago… Sam died."

"Erm… What?" Harry looked confused; glancing to make sure Sam actually was sitting in front of his laptop.

"I know but he did." Taking a deep breath, she looked at Sam then Dean and continued, "We were working a job… Sam was gone, missing from a diner we stopped at on our way to a job. Everyone else who had been in the diner at the time was dead."

By this point Dean was already starting to look like he was ready to go kill something.

Sam was perched on the edge of his chair listening intently as no one had told him yet the full story of what had happened. All he had known was that he died; nobody had been able to get through the entire story to tell it to him.

"We found sulfur in the diner, which is a sign of a demonic presence. We looked everywhere, tried everything we could think of but Sam was just gone. Then somehow Dean got this vision of a bell which Bobby figured out and off we went to go get Sam."

"One of the other guys at the ghost town, he sent Dean that vision." Sam told them quietly.

Bobby came out from the kitchen where he had been grabbing a beer and put a hand on Sam's shoulder in support.

"We got to the ghost town, and as we were running around the corner we saw Sam being held by another man."

She stopped herself at this point and gave Sam and Dean both a small smile knowing it wouldn't be easy for them to hear.

"The other man had a knife and stabbed Sam before we could do anything. He cut through Sam's spine. I tried to fix it but Sam was already dead."

"Dean had an absolute fit and sent Bobby and I away. What we didn't realise was that he wanted us gone so he could do something stupid. He went to a crossroads and made a deal. He agreed to give his soul to a demon in one year in exchange for Sam coming back to life."

"Wait, so Sam came back to life? But now it's Dean who dies?" Harry looked to be in absolute shock.

"Essentially yes."

"So what is it that you think boy wonder here can do to help me?" Dean said in a gravelly voice, even more hoarse than usual.

"Harry here has some connections the rest of us could only dream of."

Harry and her stared at each other a moment in silent conversation before a look of comprehension crossed his face.

"Oh no… Mione seriously? You know how much I hate that guy!" Harry started to whine.

"Harry, Please! It's Dean's life here, I can't lose him too."

Harry stopped his rant in its tracks and looked at Hermione before muttering something about Ginny killing him if she ever found out.

"Uh, Could you two maybe fill the rest of us in here?" Bobby asked.

"Sorry guys. Um, Sam and Dean when we first met do you remember all those symbols you were asking about?"

"Yeah, there were tons of them." Sam looked at Hermione confused.

"There was one that I told you was a symbol of the Hallows. The cloak, the wand, and the stone. There was a legend in our world growing up that whoever had all three of those items which had been supposedly created by death would become the Master of Death."

"Wait… So are you trying to tell me that the friggen Master of Death is sitting on Bobby's couch right now?" Dean looked outraged. "Why didn't we call him when Sam was dead!"

"Death is final Dean, well usually it is. Once death has claimed someone, he doesn't give him or her back. You see Harry isn't death himself he's just what we call the Master of Death, he's someone who can contact Death himself."

"Then what good is it going to do to have Harry talk to him? No offence man, but what can you possibly do to change what Death has planned?"

"Fair enough Dean. However, you made your deal with a demon, not death himself." Harry pointed out not offended in the least that Dean was doubting him. To be honest he had his own doubts but he'd give it a try.

"Alright then. What do we gotta do to make this Death fella show up?" Bobby asked ready to start.

"Not a thing, Bobby. It's all up to Harry now." Hermione told then standing and crossing the room to stand beside Dean.

Harry sat on the sofa in Bobby's house and closed his eyes focusing on his goal. Seeing Death, here in this room.

"Mr. Potter." Came a new voice from in front of him followed by a mumbled 'Holy Christ he looks like the crypt keeper' from Dean.

Harry opened his eyes to see a very tall slender man he had come to know was Death's form. The man was pale with slicked back dark hair and a rather pointed face as well as a sense of arrogance.

"Death. Nice to see you again."

Death gave him a slight bow of the head before he turned to survey the room he was in; a distinctly unimpressed look crossed his face at the state of the home. Once he reached the other occupants in the room he stopped and a rare half smile made its way onto his face.

"Miss Granger… Always a pleasure." He greeted Hermione.

"You as well, sir." Hermione told him trying to hide his nervousness.

"I don't believe I've met the rest of you however." He looked at the three remaining men.

"Right, this is um… Bobby Singer." Hermione pointed out Bobby who waved uncomfortably at Death.

"And these are the Winchester brothers, S…" Hermione began to introduce them when Death interrupted her.

"Sam and Dean Winchester. Yes I know of you two, quite a bother to me you two are."

The boys both shifted in their seats a bit uncomfortable that they had somehow managed to find themselves on Death's radar before they had even known he was an actual figure not just… a natural occurrence.

"Uh, Nice to meet you? Sir?" Sam forced out nervously while Dean looked at Hermione unsure of what to do.

"Quite." Death looked down at them before turning back to Harry.

"What is it exactly you've called me to this… place for?" Death asked casting another unhappy look around.

"Well, we need your help, with Dean." Harry started.

"Ah yes, I should have known." He turned from Harry and advanced towards where Dean and Hermione were, "Quite a mess you've gotten yourself into here."

Dean gave a nervous chuckle, "Yeah I guess you could say that."

"So you bring in Mister Potter as the Master of Death in order to plead your case to me?" Death said taking a seat in an armchair, steepling his fingers in front of him. "My, My, How… Interesting."

Death stared at Dean over his fingers, enjoying watching Dean squirm uncomfortably under his gaze.

"Well, let's hear what you have to say."


	28. Chapter 28

Ooookay, well. I'm sorry this took an unreasonable amount of time to write, there are no excuses I just could not get myself motivated to write. But at least it's finally here!

As always, let me know if there's anything you'd like to see or not see! For anyone who is still with me on this story and has been encouraging a new chapter I appreciate you more than you know!

* * *

"So… Let me see if I have this right. Dean sells his soul to a demon to bring Sam back to life. Which caused quite a stir among my reapers by the way. Now you and Sam here are trying to find a way out for him because if he tries to do it himself he dies."

"Yes." Hermione agreed.

"Now you're hoping that somehow I can what? Save Mr. Winchester?"

"That's the idea yes."

Death stared at Dean for a few moments, making him squirm in his seat, before he began walking around the room.

"Well, I'm afraid that as your deal is with a demon and was not originally part of you natural course, there is not a lot I can do for you."

Dean let out a noise of disbelief "I knew it. I'm screwed."

"Dean, please." Hermione put her hand on his arm. "Death, there has to be something you can tell us though? Souls and death are what you deal with all the time right?"

"Why should I help Mr. Winchester here?... I'm old Miss Granger, older than you can imagine. I cannot even begin to explain how little this snarky little bacterium of a human means to me." Death said sounding very bored.

"I have sat here through this explanation out of duty to Mister Potter as he has gained himself the title of Master of Death, however, you Winchesters have been nothing but a nuisance."

"Death," Harry said in a less polite tone than he had originally taken with the man, "I'm asking you as the current owner of the Hallows, tell us what we can do to help Dean. If you can't stop this yourself, the very least you could do would be to tell us a way we can help Dean ourselves."

"My, My Mister Potter… really coming into our own there are we? Fine then."

Bobby and Sam who had been sitting silently watching the exchange between the other four occupants of the room perked up at this and looked ready to get to work as soon as they got even a shred of information from Death.

"You see Dean here, made a deal with a demon. Now that deal, or contract, is being held by another demon."

Death walked around the room, hands clasped behind his back eventually standing in front of Hermione he looked at her, "The contract, the deal that says Dean's soul goes to hell is being held by a very high level demon."

Hermione's brows knit together in frustration and deep thought.

"Who is this demon?" Bobby asked.

"Ah, good question. As I said, she's a very high level demon, one of the first in fact." Death sat himself down again seemingly enjoying his ability to drag out his explanation for as long as possible.

"You see some time ago, as I'm sure you know, Lucifer and God had a small falling out, Lucifer then took a human's soul and twisted it, mutilated it for so long he created the first demon. Lillith."

Bobby let out a derisive snort at the 'small falling out'.

"Lillith is the demon that holds Dean's contract?" Hermione asked trying to sort through the information they were being given.

Death looked up from the invisible dirt he had been picking at under his nails, "Yes. She is."

"So how can we get rid of it?" Sam asked.

"Well you see being a verbal contract sealed with a kiss, it's not exactly a tangible object now is it?"

"So what? This demon is holding an intangible contract of Dean's death?" Sam asks looking completely lost, as was most of the rest of the room.

"We have to kill Lillith." Hermione spoke softly. "Kill Lillith and the contract dies with her. Isn't that right?" she said looking at Death with a dangerous look in her eyes. She looked ready to march out and kill the demon that very second.

Death looked at Hermione with something akin to pride, "Very good Miss Granger."

Hermione looked simultaneously proud and also unnerved at the compliment.

"Great, so we gank a demon and I get to live? That's all it takes?" Dean asked sounding thrilled.

"You make it sound simple Mr Winchester. I don't believe you've quite grasped what this all means so let me make it clearer." Death turned on Dean sounding less than thrilled with the casual way Dean talked about killing Lillith.

"You don't get to just waltz in and 'gank a demon' Dean" he drawled in a mocking manor.

"Lillith is not just any demon. The demons you and Sam have dealt with up to this point are snivelling little babies in comparison. Those demons are scared of Lillith, they work for Lillith."

Dean looked suitably chastised by Death's small lecture.

"So how do we find this Lillith?" Bobby asked trying to bring the conversation back to getting information.

"Ah, Mr Singer, always the one thinking ahead. If I told you that it would spoil all the fun now wouldn't it?" Death told him.

"Now, I have many unhappy reapers waiting for me and many souls to deal with. I have given you more information than I needed to, and I believe it is time that I get back to more important matters."

"Thank you." Hermione piped up from where she had been pacing deep in thought.

Death nodded his head in her direction before turning to Harry and doing the same.

Seconds later the room was once again down to the few people Dean was relying on to save him.

Sam, Bobby and Hermione were quick to join forces and brainstorm ways they could track down Lillith and the deal.

Harry on the other hand went over to Dean, having been the one in his position for most of his adolescence he figured it couldn't hurt to offer his support.

"She's very determined you know. Once Mione decides to do something there's no stopping her you just have to hold on and go along with the ride." Harry said dropping down to sit beside Dean.

"So I'm learning." Dean sighed.

"At least you've got somewhere to start now, yeah? That's more than you could say a couple hours ago. Just imagine how long it would have taken you three to learn all this without her." Harry laughed.

"She does have some scary connections. I guess I should be grateful she's using them to help me, especially after some of the shit I've put her through." Dean laughed.

"Exactly. Now let's go see what kind of crazy plan those three have come up with over there." Harry said eyeing where Hermione, Bobby and Sam had been arguing over the best course of action.

"Shit, do we have to?" Dean whined.

"It's either that or wait until she drags you over." Harry laughed at Dean.

"Fine, let's get this over with." He sighed.

* * *

Hermione sat in the backseat of the Impala behind Sam's seat attempting to distract herself from the fact that it had been nearly a week ago they had their meeting with Death and they hadn't managed to accomplish a whole hell of a lot since.

At the moment the three of them were on their way to Nebraska following a lead Bobby had heard of. I mean, they couldn't just sit at Bobby's forever hoping that they would miraculously gain some way to save Dean. So it was decided that they would continue hunting their usual cases as they tried to save Dean along the way.

Hermione was convinced that if they continued to work cases they would eventually come across someone or something that knew anything at all about Lillith.

If that meant that she had to stay in the back of the Impala listening to Sam snore and Dean sing along off key to one of his many crappy 80's rock songs then so be it.

They pulled up to an old farmhouse somewhere in Nebraska and met up with Bobby who was already waiting for them.

"So? What's happening here Bobby? All the cicadas, some sort of biblical plague?" Sam asked referencing the sound the insects were making, never a good sign.

"Let's go find out. This seems to be ground zero." Bobby said heading for the door of the house.

The four hunters knocked with no response before letting themselves in. The moment the door to the house swung open Hermione was nearly knocked over by the stench that wafted out from the house.

Moving through the house the boys all drew their guns, Hermione her wand.

Eventually, making their way into the home's living room it wasn't hard to see why the house smelled the way it did.

There were three bodies on the couch, all of them looked mummified. Still unsure of what exactly had happened here they continued looking around for sulfur or any other sign of demons.

Dean was by the window of the living room when he whistled and made some hand signals to the others and the three men split up to go investigate.

Hermione sighed, she was really going to have to learn those hand signals, if Dean had wanted her to do anything he was out of luck.

She heard a scuffle out on the porch and stuck her head out the door to see Dean laying on the ground and a couple pointing a shotgun at him.

"Isaac? Tamara?" Bobby came out from around the corner asking what they were doing there.

The hunters joined forces and later that evening they compared notes while Dean charmed the local Medical Examiner into giving him the cause of death.

"That whole family? They died from Starvation and dehydration. They sat down and never got up." Dean informed the group.

"So what? Demon attack?" Sam asked

"No offence guys, but we aren't interested in teaming up. I don't want to work with the guys who opened a damn gate to hell." Isaac said to the group.

"Issac!" His wife chastised.

"No, they brought war to ALL of us. There are hundreds more demons out there roaming around than there were before these two opened that gate. There aren't enough hunters in the world to deal with this." Isaac ranted.

"That's enough." His wife took him by the arm and they left the room.

Hermione walked through the house putting up as many wards and protective spells as she could before settling in for the night.

"So? Any ideas?" Dean asked her flipping through a book he had.

"Honestly? Just sitting down and not moving ever again? That sounds like sloth, as in the seven deadly sins. But that's ridiculous you know." She shook her head at herself.

"Right, well let's sleep. See what we find out tomorrow." Dean sighed.

They spent the next day looking into a woman who had wanted a pair of shoes so badly she smashed another woman's head into a car window.

Bobby and Dean scanned the security camera's and found a clip of a man who had grabbed the woman's arm and talked to her seconds before she went on her shoe rampage. After all, a woman doesn't just smash someone over shoes of all things. There had to be more to it than that.

They printed out the image and considered it a win since it was more then they had to go on with the family who sat themselves to death.

Hermione hung back for a bit while the boys made their way over to the impala, intent of finding out who this guy on the cameras was.

She'd had this strange feeling that someone had been watching them all day today and she just couldn't shake it. Surveying the area, she thought she saw a blond woman watching Sam but as soon as she thought she saw it the woman disappeared.

Hermione shook her head, maybe she was going crazy. Paranoid even.

She made her way to the Impala and spent the rest of the day flashing the stranger's photo to everyone in town trying to figure out who this man was.

Eventually they got a name from a hotel clerk who told them the guy in the photo spent a lot of time at a local pub.

* * *

"Walter Rosen! He went missing from an area outside Chicago over a week ago." Sam came back into the car thrilled with his find.

"So what? This dude touches someone and they go stark raving psycho?" Dean asked.

"Seems like it." Bobby said.

"Boys!" Hermione piped up from her spot in the back interrupting the conversation. "Look."

The man from the security videos, Walter, was walking into the pub they had been sitting in front of for what feel like hours.

"Let's go!" Dean said getting ready to go charging in.

"Dean! We have no idea what he is or what he can do. If all he has to do is touch you then how do you propose we deal with this?" Hermione asked him exasperated with his habit of running into situations half blind.

"Um, Mione? I don't think waiting is an option anymore." Sam said sounding just as annoyed.

"What? Why?"

Bobby sighed and muttered an 'aw hell' before pointing at another vehicle that had pulled into the lot during their 'what do we do now' discussion.

Hermione turned and watched as Isaac and Tamara got out of their car and walked into the bar full of god knows what kind of demons.

"Lovely. Just bloody wonderful. Doesn't anybody research anything anymore?!"


	29. Chapter 29

Alright guys here it is!

* * *

Hermione hung back as she watched the other hunters question Envy.

Isaac and Tamara had gone into that bar woefully unprepared and Isaac had paid the ultimate price. The hunters had entered the bar just in time to see Isaac be touched by Gluttony and drink an entire bottle of chemical cleaner while Tamara was held back and forced to watch helplessly.

They had managed to get Tamara into the car and Dean pushed Envy into the trunk fighting off the rest of the demons.

Hermione couldn't believe that they were truly dealing with the Seven Deadly Sins personified. When Bobby had confirmed Hermione's suspicions about this being the sins she had felt her stomach sink to her feet. She had truly hoped she was wrong.

As Bobby had said, this was medieval stuff. Nothing like they had ever faced before. This threw everything else into question.

She reflected on their talk with Death, where he had mentioned Lucifer and God. If Death was an actual figure, and the seven sins were here now, did that mean that God was real too? What about Angels?

How far did this go? Hermione had always known that all mythology was based on some sort of truth but she had never truly believed this part was true.

Envy's screams brought her back to reality. Back to this dark and questionably clean room that was currently holding the five hunters and Envy.

The demon laughed as the holy water that had been splashed in his face sizzled away to nothing.

"Really? I mean which of you can truly cast the first stone?" Envy looked around the room smirk on his face.

"I mean, Dean, come on, you're a walking billboard for Gluttony and Lust. Tamara, all that wrath…" Envy clicked his tongue a few times in admonishment.

"Sam, Hermione, all that pride you both have."

Tamara surged forward and punched him across his face.

Envy spat a mouthful of blood onto the floor.

"See? My point exactly. You can deny us as much as you like, but the truth is you're no better. The others will be coming for me you know."

"Yeah? Well you wont be here to greet them. You're going straight back to hell." Dean said crouching and getting in Envy's face.

Tamara then began reciting the exorcism, Envy starting to scream in pain.

The other four hunters left the room to discuss their plans allowing Tamara the satisfaction of a small revenge for her husband.

"You guys should take Tamara and head for the hills. I can hang back, buy us some time."

"You're insane Dean." Sam said tiredly.

"There's six more of them! We don't stand a chance, at least this way you guys can run." Dean argued.

"We can't hide from them! There's nowhere they wont find us."

Hermione had remained silent, watching the interaction between the men in front of her in disbelief.

"Dean." She said quietly, interrupting the argument in front of her.

Sam, Bobby, and Dean all stopped and turned to look at her.

"What?" He asked her.

"Is this how it's going to be now?" She asked him.

"What do you mean?" she saw Dean's brows knit together in confusion.

"I mean, am I going to spend the next year wasting my time?" she looked him in the eyes, anger and disappointment clear as day across her face.

Dean opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off before he could.

"You asked me for help. You told me you didn't want to die. I brought in Death for you, I got us a place to start!" Hermione took a minute to stop and calm down before continuing.

"Just tell me now, am I wasting my time? If you're just going to go on a suicide mission every time something comes up, then why are we even trying to keep you alive?"

Dean opened and closed his mouth a few times before finally sighing, "No. You aren't wasting your time. Let's get to work."

Hermione let out the breath she had been holding in and saw both Sam and Bobby let out a sigh of relief as well.

Just then they heard Envy leave the body he had been using and Tamara walked in, "He didn't make it." She told them coldly before leaving again.

* * *

The hunters spent the remainder of their night preparing for the arrival of the rest of the sins.

Bobby drew traps all over the house, Sam and Tamara prepped every gun they could find.

Dean and Hermione went around the house doing some more creative booby traps. Holy water in the bathtub and so on.

"I'm sorry Hermione. I didn't mean to ignore the fact that you were working so hard to save me." He suddenly told her.

"It's fine Dean. Just… just stop playing the sacrificial lamb." Hermione half smiled at him.

Dean stared at her for a minute before he crossed the room and pulled her closer to him.

"Promise." Dean told her gruffly before lifting her chin and kissing her.

Hermione was sure her stomach was up in her throat with all the butterflies that were in there. Even after this long, Hermione still felt those same butterflies she had since day one when she had met him back in East Hollow.

She pulled back and looked up at Dean. Even with all this happening, the Sins, Lillith and the deal, all of it, she was happy.

She pulled Dean's face back down to hers.

* * *

It wasn't until much later in the night that the radio suddenly let out some static before it began playing an old song. The hunters had all moved into their respective spaces around the house.

Tamara and Bobby together, Hermione and Sam in another area, and Dean was in yet another space of the house.

"TAMARA! HELP ME!" They suddenly heard Isaac scream from outside.

"It's not him! They're possessing his corpse." Bobby tried to reason with her.

Isaac continued to try and talk his way into Tamara's head to get into the house.

Tamara tried resisting her husbands yelling but she was visibly breaking down. It wasn't too much longer before she pushed past Bobby, out the front door to kill the demon that was in Isaac's body.

The rest of the hunters found themselves all dealing with their own demons.

Dean got Lust.

Sam and Hermione dealt with Pride.

Bobby with Gluttony.

Dean shoved Lust face first into a bath tub filled with Holy water, Bobby trapped Gluttony in a devil's trap.

Sam and Hermione had worse luck though, Pride instantly seeing the trap and destroying it. They tried fighting him off but it wasn't hard to see that they were on the losing end of the battle.

Hermione was sure they were about to lose for good when a blonde woman came from nowhere and stabbed Pride in the head. Whatever kind of knife she used instantly killing the demon.

"What the hell!"

"Who are you?"

Came from Hermione and Sam at the same time.

"The girl who just saved your ass, See you around Sam." She said before turning and leaving.

* * *

By the next morning, Bobby had exorcised all the Demons, only two of their hosts surviving.

"What kind of blade can kill a demon?" Sam asked as they watched Tamara burn Isaac's body.

"I have no idea." Bobby answered honestly.

"I think a better question is why can a girl fight better than you?" Dean laughed at his brother.

"Hey!" came from an outraged Hermione.

"Three demons Dean, at one time." Sam answered defending himself.

"So, If the Seven Deadly Sins escaped… What else got out from the devil's gate?" Hermione asked.

"Good question… the world just got a lot scarier."

Bobby turned and went to his car, leaving for home.

"So where do we go next?" Dean asked.

"Louisiana maybe? Might be someone there who could help us with your deal." Sam offered.

"Nah." Dean answered glibly which Hermione saw made Sam angry.

"That's it Dean. I'm done. I can't keep trying to bend over backwards to save you when you have some sort of death wish." Sam told him.

"I can't Sam! I try and get myself out of the deal and you die!" Dean told him finally explaining his reluctance.

"Dean!" Hermione broke in, "I get it okay! You can't try and get out of the deal and that's fine. But for the love of merlin can you please stop trying to kill yourself before then?" Hermione asked exasperatedly.

Sam looked between the two of them and excused himself to go to the car hoping Hermione could talk some sense into Dean.

"Hermione please. I.." Dean began, "I can't do this, I have one year left and I want to spend it hunting and doing what I do best. I can't spend this whole time focusing on my impending death."

"Fine. Dean, please just try not to go on anymore suicide missions. I realise that you've got a year left, I do." Hermione felt tears start to pool in her eyes and blinked them back. "I can't lose you before then. So please just let me try and get you out of this."

Hermione felt Dean wrap his arms around her.

"I promise. No suicide missions." He agreed.

"Thank you. You're going to give Bobby and Sam heart attacks soon with all this stress."

Dean couldn't help but let out a small chuckle at that.

* * *

The three of them spent the next couple weeks working a couple small hunts, staying busy while trying to find a way to track down Lillith.

They tried calling everyone they knew, no one in the hunting community seemed to be able to know anything about this specific demon. Everyone was up to their ears in demonic activity and weird new cases but none involved Lillith.

It was about three weeks after they had wrapped up the seven sins case when Sam came up to Hermione and Dean who had been having a lunch date.

"I found a case!" He announced dropping some newspaper articles on their table.

"Great! Where are we going?" Hermione asked dropping her French fry and picking up an article.

"Cicero, Indiana." Sam told her, "There've been a series of unfortunate accidents in one of the neighborhoods there."

Hermione had noticed Dean's face fill with dread as soon as he heard Cicero and was certain he hadn't heard anything since then.

"Dean? Everything alright there?" She asked him slightly concerned.

"Yep. All good. Let's go to Cicero." He grinned at her, dropping some money on the table and heading out to the car.

Sam and Hermione exchanged looks of confusion before getting up and following Dean out to the car.

Hermione was sure she had never seen Dean drive somewhere as slow as he was to Cicero. Dean normally drove like a bat out of hell without a concern in the world so Hermione and Sam both knew something was off.

"Hey, Grandma Winchester. Any chance we can get to Indiana sometime in the next year or are we just going for a Sunday drive?" Hermione asked him half joking half serious.

"Shut up." Dean said without malice, yet still stepping on the gas pedal a little harder than before.

"Dude, I haven't seen you drive like this… pretty much ever." Sam laughed, "What's in Cicero that's turned you into Driving Miss Daisy suddenly?"

"Nothing. I mean it's a big city, right? Probably won't even be an issue." Dean muttered more to himself than anyone else.

"Oh good lord Dean. Just spill it already." Hermione laughed at him.

"Lisa Braeden."

"What?"

"That's what, or I guess who, is in Cicero." Dean explained.

"So this is about a girl?" Hermione looked at him trying to quell her jealousy.

"Oh crap." Sam muttered, visibly trying to make himself smaller in his seat of the car.

"It's not like it even matters. It was one night, and seriously what are the chances of even seeing her." He tried to defend.

"It's a girl." Hermione announced moving back into her seat folding her arms over her chest.

Dean muttered something like sounded a lot like "Dammit" pulled over onto the shoulder of the road suddenly and told Sam to get out.

"Good luck man." Sam half laughed getting out of the car giving them some space.

"Look, it's nothing okay?" Dean turned to look at Hermione who was sitting in the middle of the backseat.

"So why are you driving like you're 90 years old to avoid her?"

"I was trying to avoid this conversation! I mean, I've been kind of a… there's been a lot of girls okay. I was hoping you'd never have to deal with that." He told her.

"Oh." She muttered turning a little red.

"Yeah…" Dean sighed.

There was silence for a few minutes before Hermione finally sighed and looked at Dean again.

"Sorry."

"It doesn't matter."

"Hey Dean…"

"Yeah."

"I… I think I love you." Hermione said now a bright crimson.

Oh god. Oh no.

Why the hell did I just say that.

Crap.

"Oh crap, Dean I… I'm sorry. I shouldn't have dropped that here and now."

"Mione…" Dean hesitated.

"It doesn't matter, let's just go to Cicero." She told him quietly.

"Yeah, I'll go get Sam." Dean told her.

"Okay."

Dean got out of the car and stood with his hand on the door for a minute. This was probably the first time he had heard someone say they loved him in god knows how long. He was a little bit shell shocked.

He took a deep breath and turned around to face the car again. He looked at where Sam had sat down about 20 feet away while the couple talked things over.

Taking a deep breath Dean yelled, "SAM! Get your ass back in the car so we can go."

Sam jumped up and headed back to the car.

"Hey Mione..." Dean stuck his head inside the car before Sam came back.

"Yeah?" She looked up at him

"I… I love you too."

Hermione's smile broke into a wide grin.

"Okay then."

"Okay." Dean smiled back.

Sam finally reached the car and the brothers both got back into the vehicle.

"So we good now?" Sam asked trying to gauge how their conversation had gone.

"Yeah. Everything is good here." Dean told him as he stomped on the gas, fishtailing their way back onto the highway.

Sam turned to look at Hermione and see if things were truly okay. She didn't even notice him since she was too busy staring at the back of Dean's head a small smile on her face.

Yeah. Everything was good.


	30. Chapter 30

OK! For anyone who's still around for this, here it is!

Sorry for the delay, I'm finding it harder and harder to get these Chapters out but I'm still going.

Let me know what you think and as always please leave a review!

* * *

The three hunters found themselves in yet another dingy hotel in the small town of Cicero, Indiana. For the first time since she'd been hunting with the boys she felt a little unsure about this trip.

Lisa Braeden. Even the name sounded pretty.

Hermione wasn't particularly self conscious but she also knew she was a little too bossy and a little too much of a know it all at times. Merlin knows she had heard that from enough people to know it was true.

Sam had found a newspaper article about a man who had fallen on his own power saw. Not unusual in itself, but add it to a few more unfortunate accidents in the same neighbourhood and it became worth checking out.

So here they were. In the same town as the woman Dean had let slip he once called "Gumby Girl".

Yeah, that had earned him a night sleeping on the couch instead of sharing Hermione's bed.

"So, should we head out? See the neighbourhood of unfortunate events?" Dean asked the other two in the room.

Hermione took a deep breath to steel her nerves and stood to go to the Impala.

"You ok?" Sam asked her as they made their way out.

"Yeah, I'm good. It's just awkward is all." She let out a small laugh.

"Maybe we won't even run into her." Sam clapped her on the shoulder and went to the car.

Yeah, right.

* * *

They had spent about an hour looking around the neighbourhood but had yet to see anything weird or find any ways to blend into the community to talk to the locals.

"Maybe there's an open house? A community bar-b-que? Whatever else normal people do?" Dean said looking up and down the block for a non-existent event.

"We've tried that Dean remember? There's nothing." Sam rolled his eyes at his older brother.

Hermione closed her eyes and took a breath. She knew she'd probably regret this but it didn't seem like there was much of an option anymore.

"Do you remember where Lisa lives? Is it close?" She asked Dean.

Sam's head whipped up to look at her in confusion while Dean shuffled nervously on his feet avoiding looking at her.

"Maybe, a block over." He mumbled to the ground.

"Great! There's our in. Let's go." Hermione said.

"Are you sure you wanna do this? I thought we were avoiding this part?" Dean asked her sounding entirely bewildered at the sudden change.

"I'm sure. We need a way into this community to dig into what's going on here. This is it. Besides it was what, 8 or 9 years ago?" She smiled at him.

She wasn't thrilled with the idea but she knew what had to be done.

It wasn't that she felt threatened by the other woman, more that she didn't love the idea of putting faces to names of the women in Dean's past. She knew he wasn't a saint and was fully aware there were plenty of faces to put to plenty of names.

However, Hermione was also certain he hadn't been willing to tell any of them that he loved them, as he had her. She still felt herself get a slight flush and warm feeling in her stomach at the memory of him admitting his feelings for her.

Sam broke into her internal monologue, "Hermione? You coming?".

"Yeah! Sorry!" She jogged to catch up to where the brothers were standing down the sidewalk watching her with matching concerned faces.

All too soon the trio were standing on the front porch of a nice looking single family home just a block away from where the majority of strange occurrences had been.

Dean looked at Hermione almost apologetically before raising his fist and knocking on the door.

Within moments the witch found herself staring into the face of a woman who clearly remembered her time with Dean.

Lisa's face started out with shock then a small smile of recognition when she saw Dean's face.

"Dean! Hi..." She said clearly confused.

"Hey, Lisa. How's it goin'?" Dean asked shifting on his feet clearly uncomfortable.

"How long's it been, wow." Lisa said with a small laugh and moved to give Dean a hug.

"8, almost 9 years." Dean replied giving her a quick one armed hug.

Hermione couldn't help but smirk, she knew Dean was in brand new territory for him and wasn't too sure what was or wasn't okay.

"So, what are you doing here?" She asked looking at Sam and Hermione for the first time.

"Well, Um... You see..." Dean stumbled over his words. Clearly he hadn't thought of an excuse in advance.

Sam stepped in at that point.

"Hi Lisa, right? I'm Sam, Dean's brother. This is Hermione." He gestured to the petite brunette standing between himself and Dean.

Lisa stared back at him with a small smile still waiting for a reason.

Hermione rolled her eyes and decided to just go with the truth.

"We're in the neighbourhood looking into some of the strange…things that have been happening here. Only problem is we haven't been able to find a way to talk to much of the community." Hermione told Lisa.

"Dean here remembered that you lived around here and we were hoping that maybe you could help us." She finished smiling at the other woman.

"Oh. Um, we're kind of having a party now so most of the neighbourhood is in my back yard. No offence, but what exactly is it you're looking into?" She said awkwardly.

Again, Hermione could see how the boys were about to fumble through another god-awful excuse.

"I work for the government, investigating things like this." Hermione said truthfully, "I have Sam and Dean helping me with this case." She didn't elaborate any further.

"Can we come in? We'll stay mostly out of your hair, just wanna talk to a couple people get a feel for the area." Dean said with a grin.

"Uh, Sure… I guess so yeah." Came the unsure reply.

The four of them made their way out to the backyard where Hermione and Sam wandered off to talk to some of the neighbours while Dean and Lisa stood awkwardly discussing her son's birthday.

Lisa looked behind her and saw another woman and her daughter walking into the party. "Dean, could you excuse me a minute?" She asked before turning and leaving him there.

"Yeah, Sure."

Hermione was standing near the cake not far from two women slightly older than herself. Dean walked over to her and grabbed a piece for himself.

The women behind them started a hushed conversation, but not hushed enough in Hermione's opinion.

"Did you just hear her call him Dean?"

"Yeah, Why?

"Dean! _The_ Dean! Best night of my life Dean!"

"Tell me!"

"Apparently, they had this crazy, semi-illegal…"

Dean turned and looked at the women stopping their conversation.

Hermione had closed her eyes and tensed up. It was one thing to know about them being together, quite another to hear details from strangers.

Dean put an arm around her and dropped a kiss to the top of her head in an attempt to make her feel better.

* * *

By the end of that afternoon Hermione had quelled her jealously slightly and Dean had made sure to ask Lisa out of Hermione's earshot that Ben wasn't his kid.

Sam on the other hand had actually made some real progress on their case and talked to one of the other mothers in the area whose husband had been the one to fall on a power saw.

They were on their way back to the hotel, listening to how this woman was convinced her kid was off, something was wrong.

"So, what? She thinks the kid killed her dad?" Dean asked confused.

"I don't know. What if that's not even her daughter?" Sam asked back.

"Like a changeling? Or possession?" Hermione questioned.

They went on like that throwing possible scenarios back and forth until Dean started loudly complaining that he was hungry and 'would die without a bacon cheeseburger in the next half hour'.

Sam volunteered to go get them their food. Hermione and Dean both saw through his thinly disguised attempt at giving them time to talk but neither one called him out.

"So…" Dean started as soon as Sam was gone.

"Relax Dean. I'm not upset." Hermione laughed at his nervousness, "I'm a grown woman, I realize there will be exes along the way. You were hardly celibate before I came along." She laughed at the thought.

"Oh, thank god." Dean let out looking substantially more relaxed. He'd never really done this whole relationship thing before so he wasn't sure what to expect.

"Besides, you had to meet Ron after knowing me for what a week? I can survive meeting your Gumby Girl." She smirked at him.

"Shut up." He growled at her playfully before grabbing her and pulling her into him.

Hermione just smiled back and lifted her head to look at him. Dean dropped a quick kiss to her mouth before Hermione pulled him back down for more.

* * *

Sam was waiting for his order in the diner when suddenly the seat across from his was occupied by the same blonde who had saved him and Hermione the night they had dealt with the Seven Deadly Sins.

"You!" he exclaimed as he realised who it was.

"Nice to see you Sam."

"That knife you had, it can kill demons?" Sam asked the question that had been bothering him.

"Yep, comes in handy when I have to save your ass."

"Why are you following me?"

"I'm interested. Obviously." She rolled her eyes at him.

Sam leaned in "Why." He questioned her again.

"You're tall, I like 'em tall." She winked. "There is also the whole anti-Christ thing, generation of psychic kids, blah blah blah." She said it so casually Sam wasn't sure he'd even heard her right.

"How do you know about that?" He asked her.

"I'm a good hunter." She smirked at him. "Even though he's gone I'm thinking you're still a pretty big deal."

"What are you talking about?"

"You don't know? All that stuff that happened to your mom's friends?" She looked at him.

Sam could feel his breathing pick up a notch. How did this girl know more about his family than he did?

"Well… Look's like you've got some catching up to do Sam." She leaned over to write her number on his arm, "Call me when you do."

She said before getting up and walking out of the diner.

Sam stared at his arm for a minute, the confusion of the conversation washing over him.

"Here you are sweetie, Sorry for the wait."

Sam jumped as the waitress placed his order in front of him breaking his train of thought.

* * *

The three hunters spent the next morning talking to the families of those involved in the various incidents. One man who had fallen off a ladder, another drowned in a jacuzzi, the man who fell on the saw.

"There is something seriously screwy with these kids." Dean announced when the three of them met back up.

"No kidding. The mother of the one I talked to had the weirdest mark on the back of her neck, a circle with other little spots around it."

"Mine too." Hermione said, brows knit together deep in thought.

"So, what? The kids are biting their mom's and offing their dad's?" Dean said not understanding what it could mean.

"I don't think these are their kids." Hermione said slowly.

"What do you think it is" Sam asked her not quite certain yet.

"My gut is telling me it's Changelings." Hermione said handing Sam an article detailing the creatures.

"Mimic the kids, live in their houses, feed on the mom. Sounds about right." Dean said pulling up any memory he had on them.

"Yep, and fire is the only way to kill one."

"Wonderful, we can't exactly go around lighting small children on fire, seems likely to cause some problems" Hermione pointed out.

"So, we gotta look for the real ones." Sam said.

"We also need to check on someone." Dean said reluctantly, thinking of Lisa and her son.

"Lisa." Hermione said awareness spreading over her face.

Sam sighed, "I'll go look for the real kids, you two go to Lisa's."

"No. Dean, go to Lisa's I'm going with Sam. He's more likely to run into problems than you are." Hermione pointed out.

"Why don't we all stop by her house, tell them to get out. Then go from there." Dean said not wanting to split up.

"Fine, but let's get a move on, shall we?" Hermione said not wanting to risk any more kids.

* * *

The talk at Lisa's hadn't gone well but at least it gave them some clues to where the real kids were being held.

Their first day in the neighbourhood they had noticed a house under construction with piles of red dirt around it.

Sam, Dean, and Hermione all went searching through the house for the kids.

Dean and Hermione took the basement and Sam the upstairs.

Hermione and Dean slowly made their way down the stairs, keeping an eye out for anyone or anything guarding the children.

"Ben! You alright? We're gonna get you out of here ok?" Dean said running up to the cages they found in the basement.

He began pulling on the cages to see if he could get it open but was struggling. Hermione rolled her eyes at him before pulling out her wand.

"Dean, move."

"We gotta get these open!" He said exasperated.

"Yes, I'm aware of that but I can do it quicker if you'd just move out of the way. Keep watch for me, would you?"

Hermione began casting spells to open each of the cages the children were being held in. As soon as all the children were out of their cages they began to move towards the main floor.

As soon as they got there however they found Sam, flame thrower out saying that the mother was here.

They slowly moved to the front door keeping watch only for the red headed realtor lady that had been at Lisa's party to show up in front of them.

Hermione stepped forward wand in hand, pushing the children behind her.

"Go!" she yelled at the boys before returning her focus to the woman ahead of her.

"Incendio" She yelled shooting fire at the woman.

"Get them out of here!" Dean yelled at Sam, unwilling to leave Hermione alone.

The realtor let out a scream and held her arms in front of her in a failed attempt to block the flames.

As soon as the woman burst into flames from Hermione's spell, Dean allowed the flame thrower he was holding to drop to his side.

"You're amazing, you know that." He said moving up beside Hermione looking at the empty space where the woman used to be.

"I know. Now let's get these kids home." She winked at him before walking out of the house.

* * *

The Impala pulled into the driveway of Lisa's home Ben and Hermione in the back, Sam and Dean in the front seats.

As soon as they were rolling to a stop, Lisa was running out of the house to them.

"Ben! Baby, you okay?" She picked him up.

She looked at Dean, "What the hell happened?"

"You probably don't want to know, Believe me."

She grabbed Dean into a hug before he even realised what was going on.

"Please explain it to me? I need to know." She looked at him, she still hadn't let go of him.

Dean took a step back, pulling her arms from around him. Hermione and Sam were by the Impala watching. Sam leaned on the roof of the car, Hermione beside him with her arms crossed watching closely.

"Go ahead Dean, I'll give you guys a minute." Sam said getting back in the car. Hermione moving to do the same.

"Wait! Um, actually Hermione was the one to figure it out, she can explain it better." Dean said holding his arm out to her.

Hermione grinned at him before walking over and taking his hand.

Lisa backed up looking confused before recognition flitted across her face.

"Please, come in you guys." She said moving back towards her house, arm around Ben.

Hermione and Dean spent the next half an hour explaining about Changelings and the fact that the supernatural was real.

"This is so weird." Lisa said looking overwhelmed running a hand through her hair.

"You know how I never mentioned my job? This is it." Dean told her looking uncomfortable.

"Yours too?" she said looking at Hermione.

"Yes, mine is slightly different as I do it for the government but essentially it boils down to the same thing." She said.

"I should've listened when you said I didn't want to know." Lisa laughed quietly to herself, "Thank you. Both of you."

Dean smiled at her before throwing his arm around Hermione and heading for the door leaving Lisa to look over Ben for the hundredth time since they brought him home, still not truly believing he was okay.

"You didn't have to bring me in with you, I trusted you to go by yourself." Hermione smiled up at Dean.

"I wanted to." He said simply, shrugging at her.

Hermione couldn't help the grin that broke through as she snuggled into Dean's side even closer.

"So. Sam left with the car… How are we gonna get back to the motel?" Dean looked at her confused.

Hermione got a wicked look in her eye before dragging him around the corner of the house out of sight.

"Oh no. No, no, no..." Dean started to whine seeing where this was going.

"Hold on tight!" She laughed at him before side-along apparating to their motel.

* * *

As soon as they arrived in the hotel room Hermione knew something was wrong with Sam.

He was sitting on the end of his bed, a blank look on his face, papers were strewn everywhere.

"Sam? What's going on?" Hermione asked him, smile fading from her face.

He looked up at her before looking back down at his hands.

"She was here." He mumbled.

"Who?" Dean asked looking around the room.

"The woman who saved us from Pride." Sam said looking at Hermione again.

"What did she want?"

"Did you know all of mom's friends are dead?" Sam asked Dean.

"What the hell are you talking about? How do you know that?"

"I looked into it after that girl said some things about mom's friends. Everyone who ever knew her." Sam said sighing picking up a pile of papers, each one detailing another one of their mother's friends and their untimely death.

"Yellow eyes?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, so I asked that girl who she was. Why she knew all this." Sam said.

"And?!" Dean pushed.

"Her eyes turned black. She said she was here to help, to figure out what he was doing. What he did to me." Sam said sounding conflicted.

"She's a demon! They don't help people!" Dean told him.

"I know! She said she knew how to save you though." Sam told him quietly.

"Hermione already figured that out! Lilith!" Dean roared back.

"What if she knows an easier way!" Sam yelled back standing up and getting in his face.

"There's not one." Hermione looked at Sam, "We would have found it before now."

"Fine." He said defeated sitting back down on the bed.

Hermione sighed and sat beside him putting her arm around his shoulders.

"I know you want to find an easy way out, but I promise you there isn't one. We've looked and we've only ever found one way. I know it sounds impossible but we will do it. I won't let Dean die." She promised Sam.

"You don't know that." Dean said gruffly.

She turned her gaze on him, "Yes. I do."

Hermione said it with such a ferocity that Sam and Dean found themselves believing her.


End file.
